Correctional Travelers
by LunaEtSidera
Summary: The gods sent four people into different times to correct past errors to balance the chaotic present. Only, it was against their will. (Thanks, Isis) Present time, the Seven and the Golden Trio hire Katelle Sparrow, the only half-human child of Kronos, to send them back in time to help out. Mystery, lies and a lot of confusion later, and there's their new life. Thanks a lot, chaos.
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter One**

**All Things Young and Twins**

Harry had been sure things couldn't get any weirder than the last year. Demigods, gods, goddess, and ancient Greek and Egyptian monsters attacking one's school could really put a damper in their summer plans. He had hoped he would meet Percy Jackson and Company again, for now he had more pressing things to worry about. Like how to kill Voldemort without getting turned into a Harry Disaster. It seemed the smell of the demigods had stuck around Hogwarts and Grimmauld Place as well, because they were having an influx of snake-skinned and triple-headed people moving into the area.

What was life without a little adventure? Seriously though, things were getting annoying.

First the Headmaster had shown up in the middle of the night with the girl, who was so hyper she never stopped moving for more than a few minutes and had a snide attitude that gave Snape's sarcasm a run for his galleons. Then Dumbledore had the nerve to say some crazy lady had shown up and shown him a vision of the future, in which the Headmaster was dead, Sirius was dead, Remus Lupin was dead, and a plethora of other cool people were dead. Not to mention, the entire world was dead and it had been turned into a barren wasteland with monsters crawling on every square inch.

Wonderful. Why wasn't Harry surprised?

So what did Dumbledore do about it? He called an emergency meeting to discuss new approaches to the war. How there were going now wasn't going to work, so they needed to shake things up a bit. Not his words exactly (the girl's, actually. She was American of all things!) but that was the gist. _Awesome_! Harry had thought. Finally the old Professor was giving up on his ways of beating around the bush. Then the words 'time travel' had come out of Dumbledore's mouth, and then Harry's thoughts had quickly gone to _schist__! _

At least he wasn't the only one who thought Dumbledore was just a little insane. McGonagall and Sirius shared his sentiment, as much as they respected and cared for the old man. The Transfiguration teacher stood by the door, watching Dumbledore with unmasked shock. To see his stern, iron willed Professor watching the Headmaster with a wide, gaping mouth was somewhat disconcerting.

So maybe his cynical mood was helped a bit from the girl. The girl, who had yet to introduce herself. So far all she'd said was 'cat'. That couldn't have been her name? Who named their kid 'cat? Unless they really, really liked cats . . . He cast critical green eyes on her. He had never seen anyone dress like her before.

She had short, shaggy, heavily streaked blonde hair. Her large blue-gray-green eyes held a predatory glint in them that made Harry want to yell "take cover!" whenever she walked near someone. Her skin was pale and she had deep bags under her eyes that told of many sleepless nights. She wasn't much shorter than Harry, but he was short, so that made her short as well. Besides her rather sallow facial expression, it was her get-up that was weird.

She wore a black leather jacket, a tank-top, and a loaded gun holster on each side. Her jeans were ripped, from what looked suspiciously like claw marks, and black, with daggers strapped to her thighs. He could just see the glint of a knife hilt sticking out of the top of her thick leather combat boots. She didn't specify _what_ she had on her, but them threateningly there was over a dozen weapons on her person. Not including the sword strapped to her back.

The girl was a walking, talking weapon arsenal. Harry knew where to go if he needed a dagger. Or a hand gun, because she had at least five of those, and treated them like they were her 'precious'.

There was a tattoo on the top of her hand, which went up into her jacket sleeve. It was a runic symbol of some kind, but Harry didn't know what it was. Neither did Hermione, who had asked the girl about it several times. It was an eye, with a tear falling from the corner. Lines like wind currents wrapped around the eye and went up into her jacket.

". . . you think, Harry?" Dumbledore's voice broke through Harry's thoughts.

"Uh, what, professor?" He asked, feeling his neck burn.

Three of the other seven kids snickered. The seven heroes, being Percy, Annabeth, Leo, Piper, Jason, Frank and Hazel were joining them with Nico. Harry remembered them from the year before when they had helped him fight off Voldemort during the Battle of the Department of Mysteries. They had also gone to Hogwarts to get to know the wizards and fight off Setne and their enemy, Apophis. It had turned into a full force battle in place called Deos-Natale, or the Birthplace of the Gods.

They had volunteered to help with this mission, even though they were leaving behind everyone. It was a huge sacrifice, but they agreed that the fate of the world was a bigger price to pay. The lives of every human being in the world rested on their shoulders, and they weren't about the let that ball drop. The whole seven had drawn back together again to help Harry and the other fight their enemy in a different way.

The other two kids who hadn't gone to Hogwarts, Frank Zhang and Hazel Levesque, had introduced themselves earlier as the son of Mars and daughter of Pluto. Harry didn't know them farther than the small talk they had engaged in when they first walked in the room, but seemed like pretty nice people. They stuck by each others sides, so Harry thought they were a couple or something.

Dumbledore smiled, and waved his wand around the room.

_Silencing wards,_ Hermione mouthed at Harry. Good thing he had a genius on hand, because he hadn't had a clue what Dumbledore was doing. The Headmaster stopped and stowed away his wand.

"I think there are a few things that we need to discuss. I assure you – _all of you_," he stressed, "that everyone in this room is completely trustworthy. Yes, Mr. Weasley," Dumbledore smiled, interrupting Ron's question, "even Mr. Malfoy, as rude as he might have been in the past. I think it's time for the real explanations. Miss Chase. Do you mind?"

Annabeth nodded, stepping forward. She clasped her hands in front of her, like a professor about to give a lecture. Hermione sensed this, and leaned forward to listen intently. Harry was sure if she had parchment and a quill she'd take notes.

"I'm sure you've heard of the ancient Greek myths?" Annabeth asked.

Hermione nodded, but McGonagall shook her head. Harry was surprised that McGonagall had never heard of the Greek myths before, but he was even more surprised that Draco was nodding his head with Harry, Hermione and Ron.

Draco Malfoy, pureblood supreme, learned about muggle mythology? Why not? Pretty soon he'd be breaking out of the hippie bandanas and singing peace and love and sticking flowers in Weapon Girl's guns.

Annabeth sighed. "Okay. Well, the Greeks were an ancient muggle civilization that lived in, obviously, Greece. They had legends and stories about gods and monsters. In these legends, the gods would often come down and become . . . _involved_ with the mortals."

"That's for sure," Draco muttered.

"Shut up, ferret," Jason said, but his twitching lips betrayed his humor.

Annabeth rolled her eyes. "_Anyways,_ the result of that was -"

"Little demigod kiddies running around and fighting monsters for the gods 'cause they're too lazy to do anything themselves." Leo grinned, throwing a pinwheel in the air, which somehow stayed aloft.

Harry figured it was something to do with Leo being a son of Hephaestus.

A lop-sided grin lit up Percy's face. "That's about sums it up."

Annabeth sighed. "In case you're wondering why I even bring this up – who am I kidding, of course that's what you're thinking – the legends are real."

There was a collective silence, McGonagall and Sirius stared at her in shock. Sirius finally coughed, diffusing the silence. "Just so you know, you missed the appropriate time to shout: _not!"_

Weapon Girl, who had yet to introduce herself, _still,_ groaned loudly. "Oh would you quit beating around the bush? The gods are real, the monsters are real, they mess around with mortals and have kids. These kids are demigods. Over half of the people in this room are demigods."

McGonagall and Hermione frowned at the same time. Hermione opened her mouth, and Harry mentally prepared himself for a long discussion. "There are sixteen people in this room. Eight of them are demigods, and eight are us wizards. That would mean that one or more of _us_ are demigods. That's if anything you're saying is true, of course."

Annabeth's gray eyes bored into Hermione, and Harry half expected the smartest witch of the century to go up in flames. However, it wasn't Annabeth who said the scathing remark. Malfoy pushed himself from his leaning post and joined the new kids on their side of the room. His eyes were narrowed, and standing next to Annabeth there was a certain . . . similarity, in their gray eyes. They had the same stormy intensity.

For a second, Harry thought . . . but, no. That was ridiculous.

"Granger," Malfoy said in a patronizing tone, "that's because over half of the people in this room are children of the gods. Dumbledore is the son of Hecate, goddess of magic. Sirius never knew, but he's the son of Hermes. And me -" he smiled, a real smile, not a smirk, "I'm the son of Athena, goddess of wisdom and battle strategy."

Hermione snorted. "Tell that to your marks."

A shadow passed across Malfoy's face. He snarled, "Do. Not. Insult. My intelligence."

"I'm not insulting your intelligence," Hermione said. Harry sensed a big _but_ in there somewhere. He was right. "_But_ there is much intelligence _to_ insult."

Annabeth's mouth twitched with suppressed humor. "Hermione," she said calmly,"don't insult a child of Athena's intelligence, unless you want to die. And I'm the daughter of Athena, making me his sister. Don't insult my little brother."

Malfoy gagged. "What have I said about calling me your little brother?"

Percy, who had draped his arm around Annabeth's shoulders again, smirked sarcastically. "A thousand and one times, ferret. Funny thing, it never seems too bother her too much."

McGonagall looked like she was trying to swallow a hair ball. "If you're all children of the . . . gods," she seemed to force the word out as if it gave her physical pain, "who are you godly parents?"

Percy jumped forward, mock saluting. "Percy Jackson, son of Poseidon, god of sea. And here's a demonstration to prove we're right." He opened his hand, and water came flying from the door. There was a muffled shout from the person who had lost their water.

The water floated in a steady stream to Percy's outstretched hand. He closed his hand into a fist, and the water circled around it like rings on a planet. "Neptune has rings, doesn't it?" He asked Annabeth curiously.

She smiled and shook her head. "Yes, Seaweed Brain."

Leo waved his hand, which burst into flames.

Professor McGonagall began to look a little faint. Dumbledore smiled gently. "I think, for the sakes of the professors, you should tell them your parentage."

An impish grin completed the elvish look on Leo's face. "I'm the son of Hephaestus, god of blacksmiths and fire. No, not all children of Hephaestus have this power. It's just a sign from above of how incredibly awesome I really am."

Piper rolled her eyes, as if she was used to Leo's antics. "I'm the daughter of Aphrodite, goddess of love. And no, I am not a brainless bimbo."

"Lighten up, beauty queen," Leo said. "Not all of us have super-awesome face-reading power that help us know what the other is thinking. We're just lowly mortals. Grant us mercy!"

The eyes of the room turned to Nico, who glowered darkly. "Son of Hades, god of death and lord of the Underworld."

Frank closed his eyes with concentration, and then he shape-shifted into a huge grizzly bear, which sent _everyone_ reeling back. He changed back and smiled, "Frank Zhang, son of Mars, war god."

Hazel introduced herself as, "Hazel Levesque, daughter of Pluto, god of the underworld and riches. Yeah, I know. Roman aspect. Try not to think about it too much."

Jason shook his head with a small laugh. "Guess that leaves me. I'm the son of Jupiter, lord of the sky and king of the gods."

McGonagall opened her mouth, but Jason cut her off. "Don't ask. I'm the son of Roman aspect of Zeus. It's a headache and a half, I know."

She closed her mouth, looking somewhat miffed. Finally Harry couldn't take it anymore. "Who are you?" He blurted, glaring at Weapon Girl in the corner. She hadn't moved an inch, and just stood there, watching diligently.

Percy looked at her, and frowned. "Oh, her name is -"

"Katelle Sparrow," she snapped in a clipped Irish accent. "Daughter of an evil Titan."

Harry felt immensely confused, but Hermione didn't. She looked apprehensive. "Is your dad, by any chance . . . Kronos?"

"Yeah." Katelle said in the same clipped tone. "Got a problem?"

"No, not at all." Hermione said quickly. She threw Harry a glance. _We'll talk about this later._

Dumbledore took the silence as a chance to talk again. "Miss Sparrow here is our key to sending you into the past. You see, Kronos was the Titan of time. With the help of a few spells, a particularly powerful time-turner, and Miss Sparrow, we'll have you sent back in time fifty years."

Shouts of outrage echoed around the room.

"You shouldn't meddle with time! Bad things happen!" Hermione.

"You old loon!" Malfoy.

"Sounds fun!" Sirius.

Dumbledore raised his hands, and everyone fell quiet again. "We haven't got much choice, I'm afraid. The future is a grim one, at best. Many good people will die, who shouldn't have to die."

Katelle shrugged her shoulders. She had pulled an apple out of her the pack – which looked like termites holding hands – and started to slice bite-sized chunks of it with a silver knife. "I'm willing. I've looked at the power of this spell, it will completely drain me. I'll have very little, if any, control over time. My limited control over fire might stay, and light, but besides for that I'll be rid of a large curse."

"Since when was control over time a curse?" Sirius grumbled.

"And how would we get back?" Hermione put in."

"It's not the power that's a curse, it's the message behind it; the legacy of who had it before me. I don't want that legacy." Katelle explained. "And we'll have to find our way back the hard way. You guys were never promised this would be easy."

Harry scowled. "What is the plan? The exactly, whole plan. We're going back in time. Great! I'll do it to destroy Voldemort. But what do we do once we're there? "Find our way back"? What does that mean?"

Dumbledore sighed heavily, looking older than ever. "I cannot allow you to do this on your own, Harry. I'm afraid this mission is of absolute importance and is necessary to the livelihoods of many hundred people. I will be accompanying you into the past, and joining you at Hogwarts."

Dumbledore, join them?

Harry was surprised, to say the least. Dumbledore had never physically helped in a quest. He would leave cryptic advice, and messages for him to decode, but never actually get his hands dirty. Now he would be going back in time with them. He supposed it made sense, although there was only one thing, one little – humongous – flaw in the plan that sent stabs of fear into Harry's gut.

"Professor," he said slowly. "Last time we traveled back in time, we changed nothing. During third year, all we did was complete what happened originally and answer questions."

"I can answer that question," Annabeth said. "You see, from what I've heard, you guys weren't outright trying to change time. You weren't trying to be seen, or do anything large. When you change time, it has to be big. You have to dive straight in a really mess things up. It's not like the world's going to blow up because of it. The time line with straighten out, how you made it."

The only people in the room who looked excited were Sirius, Leo and _Malfoy_, to Harry's surprise. He supposed it was the Slytherin ambitiousness that was getting to him. Even if it was ambition to completely change the course of history. Sirius clapped his hands, making few people jump. "So, when are we leaving?"

Dumbledore smiled serenely at Harry's godfather's enthusiasm. "As soon as Miss Sparrow is ready, and Professor Snape brings the de-aging potions."

The smile was whipped off of the three trouble-maker's faces. "De-aging?" They cried in unison.

Annabeth smirked at Percy's shocked expression. "Yup. I get to be taller than you again, Percy."

"Don't remind me," he mumbled.

"Who cares about height!" Sirius exclaimed, silvery excitement in his voice. "We're going to see an eleven year old Albus Dumbledore!"

"Don't forget Severus," Dumbledore said.

"What?"

"That's right," a voice drawled from the door, "although knowing your level of intelligence the Headmaster could have told you five times and you would have forgotten."

Professor Snape walked in with a flourish of his robes and sharp nod at Nico, who waved half-heartedly. "Hey Sev."

Harry gave a start of surprise. Why was Nico talking to Snape like he was close to him or something? Snape sneered, "for you of low intelligence, I am a legacy of Hades as well, making Nico my half brother."

_You poor thing,_ everyone in the room thought at the same time, with the exception of Malfoy and Dumbledore.

"You're related to Snivellous?" Sirius asked flatly. "You poor thing."

Well, Sirius said it out loud.

"Bloody Gryffindor," Snape sneered.

Nico smirked, and the ring on his finger suddenly grew into a long, black sword. The shadows in the room darkened, bending and twisting as if they were reaching out for the blade and the son of Hades. Nico held the sword up, his smirk widening. "Stygian Iron. Forged from the River Styx. You don't want to be cut by this sword."

Katelle rolled her eyes, making herself known again. "Let's just go, okay? The longer we wait, the harder it will get for me to control it. We need to go back roughly fifty eight years, to 1938. That was Voldeshort's first year, right?"

Dumbledore nodded gravely. "Because of how his birthday fell, he had to wait nearly an extra year to attend Hogwarts."

"Like me," Hermione and Katelle said at the same time.

Katelle shrugged, and smiled for the first time. "I was born January seventh."

The twinkle in Dumbledore's eyes seemed to die a little at that. "You might find Tom . . . fascinated with that number."

Katelle shrugged. "Whatever. I wouldn't care he wanted to dress up like an Aztec and do a dance number. Who is in? If you aren't willing to go back fifty-some years, raise your hand."

No one raised their hand. Katelle went on. "Well, McGonagall can't come. Professor, you were in your second year when Riddle started his first, so you'll be there. I'm sure it would raise a few thousand eyebrows to see her twin there. Professor Snape, you're clear to go. There's no Snivellouses back in 1938."

Sirius smirked triumphantly. "And we can all become Animagi once we arrive at Hogwarts so we can keep an eye on Riddleikens."

Dumbledore took his wand from his sleeve again. "Severus, if you would hand out the potions?"

Professor Snape set to giving everyone their potions, nearly throwing the brackish looking liquid-filled vial at Sirius when he passed him. He sneered at Harry, but muttered, "I'm doing this for Lily," and gave it to him. There was one left in his hand after he was done, and Harry realized Snape actually planned on coming with them. Harry wondered what Snape looked like as a ten year old. That made things more interesting.

"Eleven year old Albus," Sirius cackled as he held up his dark brown colored potion.

"Bottoms up!" Leo called, and tipped his potion into his mouth. He made a face and gagged, doubling over and pressing his hands into his stomach. "Oooh, not cool. Tabasco sauce and motor oil. Where's Festus when you need him?"

Percy followed, along with Dumbledore, Jason, Piper, Annabeth, Nico, Sirius, Snape, Hermione, Ron, Harry, and last Malfoy. Clearly the ferret was waiting to make sure no one died, and then he would drink the potion.

Systematically, everyone doubled over as if the air had been punched from their stomachs. Harry groaned, feeling his body ache painfully. His bones made snapping and popping noises and he shrunk. His clothes became as baggy as Dudley's had when he was eleven years old, before he discovered he was a wizard. His hands became smaller and a little pudgier, and his face was smoother and youthful.

He looked around the room and laughed.

Percy was as scrawny as Harry, which made him wonder if he was malnourished as a child, and his over-sized orange T-shirt made him look even smaller. Annabeth was cute, with her blonde hair even curlier and almost as bushy as Hermione's, coupled with huge stormy gray eyes. Leo looked more like one of Father Christmas's workshop elves rather than a Lord of the Rings elf. Jason was still muscular, and his hair was shorter cropped. His eyes looked a little more guarded, as if being eleven had brought back memories.

Nico groaned and covered his face. His dark Italian olive complexion had come back, and his was healthier looking, hanging in slightly shorter curls. The shadows thickened in front of him, and a deck of cards and several metal figurines appeared in front of him. Nico covered his face again and moaned, "dad, really? Mythomagic?" His voice was higher pitched, and softer.

Percy grinned. "You're never too old for games."

Then Harry saw Snape and he laughed again. The Potions Master was skinny little kid with long hair black hair hanging in his face, maybe a little less greasy, and large black eyes. His nose wasn't quite so big, and he wasn't nearly as tall as he was before. Next to him, Sirius wore a grin that Harry was sure Snape hated. Sirius's face had lost the hollowness from Azkaban, and seemed to glow with cheerful mischief.

"All hail," Sirius said with mock graveness, "the new Marauder's era."

McGonagall's eyes widened in horror. "My younger self is going to be going to school with you!"

Sirius turned his evil smile from Snape to McGonagall. "Don't worry, Minerva, dear. I'll make sure to seduce your younger, more impressionable self."

"Sirius Black, don't you dare!" McGonagall shouted, pulling her wand.

Sirius yelped, covering his face behind his hands and peeking through his fingers. "You would hurt a helpless, innocent child would you, Professor?"

"Oh, would we get this over with?" Snapped a furious Irish accent from the corner.

That was it. The final straw. Harry exploded into laughter, doubling over as tears streamed down his face. Katelle's tough-girl act would be futile. She was adorable. Her large blue-green-gray eyes were even larger, she had a round, angelically innocent face, with long straight locks of golden blonde hair. Her skin was pale, she had a small frame with high and girlish voice. She was the picture of innocence.

She glowered darkly at Harry, or at least tried to. It made it look like she was pouting. Sirius joined Harry's laughter, although Harry wondered if his godfather even knew what he was laughing at. He asked him.

"Nope," Sirius laughed. "But laughing is fun!"

Katelle pouted. She did it well. "He's laughing at me," she whined.

Leo looked at her, and his eyes shone with poorly concealed amusement. "Holy mother! That's how the most terrifying girl in the world looked like at eleven?"

Piper, who looked like how Harry had imagined Pocahontas, smiled. "Be nice, Repair Boy."

Katelle ignored them, and glared – or tried to – at the smiling Headmaster. "What next?"

"Names and family," Dumbledore said with a smile.

Harry blinked in shock at the child Headmaster. He had shoulder-length wavy dark auburn hair, an open, cheerful face with ever twinkling eyes. His eyes seemed brighter and clearer than before, and like he was permanently laughing inside. He was about the same height as Harry, which surprised him, was as slim as Harry. His long robes dwarfed him humorously, pooling on the floor at his feet like a silvery-blue puddle.

"I have decided that Harry, Severus and I shall be brothers in this new – or shall I say old? - time." Dumbledore went on. "Harry may still be Harry, and I will be Albus, and Severus will be Severus, but we will have the last name 'Evans'. Any objections?"

"A thousand and one, Headmaster," came Snape's new, high-pitched innocent sounding voice.

"None, sir!" Harry piped in. _I get to be Dumbledore's brother?_ He was cheering inside. "But sir, we look nothing alike!"

Dumbledore pulled several more potions from various pockets. "Never underestimate an old man, Harry. Hermione, Piper, how would you two like to become sisters?"

The two girls gaped, but shrugged.

"I am doing this so it doesn't look like there are over double the usual children going to Hogwarts. There will simply be several twins and a set of triplets." Dumbledore explained.

He gave Hermione and Piper potions, which they drank. They didn't change much, but Hermione's skin and hair became a little darker, her eyes looked like a mix of green, blue and brown – like Piper's – and her hair wasn't as bushy. Piper looked no different, although they shared similar facial features. They could pass easily as twins. They decided to keep Piper's last name McLean, because Piper Granger had too many -ers in it.

Annabeth and Draco already looked enough alike because of their godly mother. Draco, albeit reluctantly, became Draco Chase, the half-blood. Nico and Leo refused to let go of their last names, so they became adopted brothers instead of taking a potion.

Sirius had mocked-mope about having no brother or sister, so Jason became his twin. Sirius benefited the most, his hair becoming more uniform in waves, and his face turned more Roman-like. Jason barely changed, but his hair grew a few inches and became wavy.

Dumbledore's eyes darkened into a more ocean blue, rather than a horizon blue, and his hair turned deepened a shade, so it was almost blood red. Harry's hair turned a bit redder, and but his eyes and skin stayed the same. Snape's hair – thank Merlin – was no longer greasy, and became a much lighter shade of blackish-red. His eyes turned into a deep emerald, and grew larger. Most of all, his nose was no longer overly large and crooked.

"Well, Snivellous," Sirius grinned. "Looks like you might not have such a hard time with the ladies."

Younger age hadn't hampered Snape's ability to sneer. "We're going to the past to stop the Dark Lord, not party like children."

Leo coughed. "We are children."

"Amen." Sirius said.

"Wow," Piper and Hermione said together.

"Did you practice that?" Harry, Dumbledore – Albus – and Severus said in unison.

Dumbledore sighed. "Drawback of the potion, I suppose. It should, hopefully, wear off."

Harry leaned over and muttered to Hermione, who Ron suddenly couldn't stop looking at even though she was only eleven, "if I start wearing purple robes and giving out lemon drops, give me a good kick, yes?"

"Agreed," she whispered back with a giggle.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: **

**Chapter one! Of. A. Lot. More. **

**Sorry this is pretty much a whole chapter of nothing but face-changing and joking around. There's a ton of characters, I know, but that will become important later on, so don't get discouraged if it seems like some of them are being ignored. **

**If you've just stumbled across this for the first time, then go read the first story! It's called The Rise of Magic. A pretty easy, cliche title to spot on my profile page. Just ignore the blather about stories I'll probably never get around to doing. Except for the Fablehaven one maybe. **

**In case there are any people out there who have been SO desperate for scy-fy that they recognize some of the further plot as if goes along, this was inspired by Primeval, BBC series that I love. Yes, I was that desperate for a dinosaur time-traveling show. Does Dr. Who have any dinosaurs in it? Because if it does, I am addicted. **

**I'll post the next chapter in three-to-fourish days, so until then!**

**DISCLAIMER (btw, I am not posting this in every. single. chapter. I'll forget.): I do not own, Harry Potter, Percy Jackson, or any of Primeval's stuff that any legal blood-sucking tick of a nuisance might recognize. So stuff it, lawyer. **


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter Two

The Gateway to Tartarus

Dumbledore took a silver time-turner out of his robe pocket and gave it to Katelle. As soon as the cool metal touched her hand, it exploded into a plethora colors: gold, white, silver, circling around in rings of chains. She gave an involuntary yelp and tried to drop the time-turner, but it stuck to her hand. She shook her hand, but to no avail. The time-turner's wheels began to spin backwards, three days, four days, four weeks, four years, multiplying quickly.

"Conquered by a bloody tin can!" She snarled. When no one moved she motioned violently with her arms. "What're you waiting for? Christmas? Get in the circle!"

Snape reacted first, jumping in the ring of chains. Harry followed him, and that was catalyst for everyone else as well. They piled in the rings of rusty chains, which spun faster and faster as the years went back. Katelle had her eyes closed tightly with concentration as she clutched the time-turner to her chest. The world outside seemed to blur, as though there was a layer of water separating them from McGonagall.

_What were we thinking?_ Harry thought. _They were so many things that could go wrong!_

Katelle opened her eyes, but they weren't seeing. She had gone very still, her facial expression relaxed, still even. Her eyes glowed luminous gold, filling up the whites and pupils with the color of molten metal. The world outside the time-turner blurred out completely, and Katelle closed her eyes again, concentrating intensely as the numbers began to tick down.

The rings of chains slowed, and the numbers faded away. The world came back into focus, but they weren't standing where they should have been. They were in the middle of a street, in the middle of night. The chains still hung in the air, moving around Katelle in an almost predatory manner. Then they suddenly lunged at her, and she gave a cry of pain as they collided with her body. She crumpled, her small body hitting the street with a thud.

Annabeth and Piper moved to catch her, and lay her on the ground gently. Harry looked around the street, and saw something that made his heart clench with fear. There was a wide rusty iron gate, which was partially open. Inside was a dirty courtyard overgrown with weeds and covered in rubbish like old news papers and broken pieces of wood.

One the gate the words WOOL'S ORPHANAGE were welded into it.

Percy frowned. "Looks like we're at the entrance of Tartarus again."

"No kidding," Katelle said. She stood out in the 1930's with her punk rock clothes. She shrugged Piper and Hermione off. "And I don't need help."

They looked a little miffed, but said nothing. Dumbledore picked himself up off the ground, bounding easily to his feet. He beamed happily. "I'm afraid I had forgotten what it was like to be a youth."

Snape glowered as ever. Sirius couldn't stop grinning, and Harry was still reveling the fact he was in the 1930's and was Dumbledore's brother. His _triplet_ no less. The rest couldn't tear their eyes away from the forbidding orphanage before them. They were entranced with the gateway to where perhaps one of the most evil people they had ever known had grown up. Leo glared at the place openly.

Katelle was first to break the trance. "So. We're not going to fit in all that great here. We need to transfigure our clothes to the '30s stuff. Just don't touch my guns. Although I don't need weapons to kick your -"

"Language," Leo coughed.

"- purple butt." She snapped. "There. _Happy?_"

"Very." Leo said with a bright smile.

Dumbledore lifted his elder wand, and waved it. "I believe this will do."

Katelle's leather and jeans turned into a dirty plaid short sleeve dress that hung to her knees. There was a small belt about her waist that cinched the dress in. There were two gun holsters on her side, bulging under her thin cardigan. She glowered. "My leather jacket is needed."

"That not exact -"

"Leather jacket."

"Very well, child." Dumbledore waved his wand again, and her leather jacket morphed from the cardigan.

"Boots." She demanded.

"Miss Sparrow -"

"Oi! You're not our professor anymore, _Albus._ Now, boots!" She crossed her arms, glaring at Dumbledore fiercely. She did it quite well, despite having such innocent, youthful features.

Dumbledore sighed, but changed her simple flats into thick black combat boots. Then he turned to the other, and systematically transfigured their clothes into 1930's fashion. The boys found themselves suddenly wearing white long-sleeve dress-shirts, with black suspenders. The girls wore knee-length dresses with simple cardigans and a belt.

It sucked.

Sirius pouted, mourning his lost leather. Annabeth wrinkled her nose at the dress, and Piper forced Dumbledore to change her cardigan back into her snowboarding jacket. Harry was afraid for a few moments that Nico would send animated skeletons on the former Headmaster when his aviator's jacket disappeared, but Dumbledore saved himself by transfiguring Nico's jacket back to aviator's style. Dumbledore gave himself a bright blue shirt and yellow suspenders. Harry wanted to bury his head in the ground and deny that he knew Dumbledore.

By the time they reached the front door of the orphanage, they were so loud they had alerted the whole place they were there, and convinced Dumbledore to change the color of his clothes to white and silvery-blue. Harry discovered that Katelle had two more thigh holsters with hand guns (glock 40 and sig sauer), and an automatic sig in her plain-looking brown backpack that she had slung across her shoulder.

Harry wasn't sure how she was going to smuggle those into Hogwarts, but he was sure she'd find a way. While he was mulling this over, he found that everyone had suddenly started looking at him expectantly. They wanted _him_ to knock on the door. The door, which led to his mortal enemy. There was something wrong with that picture.

"Is he going to know?" Frank asked in a low voice.

"Does he know how to knock?" Katelle muttered.

"Go on, Harry!" Sirius encouraged. "One small knock for Harry, one big leap for Harrykind!"

"That makes no sense." Katelle said flatly.

"Which is why it's so brilliant," Sirius bragged.

"Why don't you do it, Katelle?" Harry asked. "You're the one decked out with five guns and gods know how much else."

She coughed. "Tommy boy knows magic. You're better at magic than me."

"I hate you." Harry muttered.

"I get that a lot," she said with a cheerful smile.

Harry tried not to stare too much. It was the first time she had smiled. Sirius, on the other hand, had no such qualms. "Whoa! Look away everyone – she can smile!"

"Oh for the love -" She cut herself off and slammed her fist against the door harshly, several times. She counted to three, and then knocked again, louder. Then she knocked, again. And then again. And again.

"Give them time!" Hermione snapped.

"I'm not patient!" Katelle shot back.

"Really?" Leo asked sarcastically, "we had no idea."

"Oh, shut up!" It was that moment, of course, the door opened.

They came face to face with boy with black hair combed neatly to the side, ocean blue eyes and a natural Mediterranean complexion, only paled from lack of sun. He had a glowering expression, which made up perfectly for how small he was. He wore a terrible looking gray tunic-like uniform.

He glared at them irritably. "What?"

"We're looking for a place to crash." Leo said.

Annabeth shifted uncomfortably and hissed, "1938, Leo!"

"Doth thy mother have a placeth for us weary wondering travelers to stayeth?" Leo asked with a dramatic flourish of an invisible hat and a really bad English accent.

That when Harry realized something rather important – the demigods, who made up the majority of their group, had American accents. That would seem very weird.

The boy rolled his eyes. "Should have known. More brats."

"'Ey!" Katelle snarled. "You're one to talk!"

The boy's stormy expression became a little angrier. "I honestly doubt that you're anywhere near my level of maturity and intelligence."

Katelle lifted her fist. "I could take you one five rounds hand-to-hand without break a sweat, shrimp."

Harry cleared his throat. "Uh – sorry. We're just looking for a place to stay. We have no where to go, we don't mean to cause a hassle."

The boy scowled, but opened the door wider. He glared openly at Katelle. "This place isn't welcoming to rebel _girls._"

"Oh, you start with that sexist s-"

"Language," Jason, Leo, and Nico muttered at the same time.

"Schist," she growled, "and I will drop kick you across the Atlantic Ocean so fast you won't know what happened."

"Judging by the fact you just told me what would happen," the boy said snidely, "I would understand quite well what happened."

She grinned fiendishly. "You'd be surprised with what I can do, _Tom Riddle._"

The boy's eyes widened, and he swallowed. Then his passive mask fell back into place. "How do you know my name?"

She made a face at him. "Isn't that what they always say?" She marched ahead of him, leaving the young dark lord staring after in shock.

Harry coughed. "Um. I'm Harry, Harry Evans. You're Tom Riddle, I guess?"

"Yes," Tom Riddle said sharply. "And I'd like to know how you know that."

They walked into the orphanage, standing the small opening corridor before the mess hall. Harry could smell food coming from the mess, but it didn't necessarily smell good. He scrambled to think of an excuse as to why Katelle would know Tom's name. Was it really necessary that she go around toting her knowledge of the future?

"Um. Well, she sort of really smart. And you kind of insulted her intelligence, which she doesn't take lightly." He stuttered. "She challenged you to a fist fight, which she does a lot."

_Smart move, Harry,_ he ridiculed himself. _As if Riddle couldn't hear Katelle brag about fighting him easily._

"You're obviously not related to her," Tom said with a smirk.

"No," Harry said blithely, before realizing it was an insult. "And I'm not stupid, you know. You need to be a little more subtle about your insults."

"Subtle insults are a waste of time," Katelle said as she stomped back in her combat boots. There was a harassed-looking older woman behind her with iron gray hair pulled back into messy bun.

Tom raised an eyebrow, which he did very well for an eleven year old child. Before he could get a word edge-wise, however, Katelle had plowed him over with a verbal freight train. "Like you, I can't stand you already. You're a cocky, insufferable git who believes he rules the world. You need a good lesson in humility."

Tom scowled. "Who needs a lesson in humility? Listen to yourself."

Katelle scoffed. "I already know my humility. I can't eat lasagna without insulting the maker."

"Sacrilegious!" Percy gasped. "You call yourself a New Yorker?"

Harry wanted to face palm.

"What can I say? New York just isn't the same in the 30's."

Now the older woman and Tom looked completely lost. The woman cleared her throat. "Well. If that is enough nonsense, I am Mrs. Cole. This is -"

"Tommy Widdle," Sirius in a falsetto. He stood directly behind Annabeth, so if one ignored the fact her mouth wasn't moving, she sounded like she had a voice problem. "We all –_ ow!_"

Sirius limped away, favoring his newly stomped-on foot.

Annabeth scowled at him, and turned back to Mrs. Cole. "I'm Annabeth Chase. We're looking for a place to stay. We were all adopted by our parents in the States, but they were," her voice broke and she blinked back tears in a stunning appearance of mourning, "killed in a ferry accident. We don't know where to go."

Mrs Cole pursed her lips. "I"m sorry for you loss, but we don't have much room –"

"That's okay!" Hermione piped up. "We're all used to sharing rooms. I can share rooms with my twin, Piper." She motioned to Piper, who flashed a smile and waved.

Mrs Cole looked doubtful. "We have four rooms open, including Tom's -"

Tom spluttered indignantly, but Mrs Cole held her hand sharply, cutting him off. "And if you can work something out, you can stay here until a relative is willing to take you."

Harry shared a look with Dumbledore and Snape. They silently agreed they wouldn't tell Mrs Cole until they settled down that they had no relatives. At least, not it this time. "That's fine." Harry said.

"Good." Mrs Cole said swiftly. "Riddle, will you take them to the open rooms?"

"Fine." The boy snapped. He motioned to the door to the mess hall. "This way." He took off, without waiting to see if they were following.

The mess hall was small, with only five round tables and a few scattered wooden chairs. There was a fireplace in the corner that spluttered weakly, which the other orphans huddled around for warmth. Harry tried to picture Tom Riddle sitting there with them, but it was impossible. Tom, from what he could already see, wouldn't ever put himself in that situation.

There was a stair case that led up to two stories of rooms, and then an attic. Some doors were open, showing children with ages ranging from three to seventeen. Tom passed by them and jogged up another flight of stairs to a lonely corridor with four doors. Three of them were closed, another was open. Harry judged that the open door was Tom's.

"You can just deal with having three rooms," Tom said darkly. "Because there is no way I'm sharing. Deal with it."

Katelle snorted. "Whatever. There's no way I'm bunking with any of them, and for some reason I don't trust you. You know what they say: keep your friends close, keep you enemies closer."

Was that Katelle's way of volunteering to share the room with the dark lord?

"There is no way -"

Piper rolled her yes. "Let's all be quiet and introduce ourselves."

Suddenly Harry felt like introducing himself quietly. "I'm Harry, these are my brothers, Albus and Severus Evans. We're triplets."

Piper gave a sigh of relief. "Good. I'm Piper, and this is my twin Hermione."

"Draco and Annabeth Chase."

"Nico di Angelo."

"Leo Valdez, bad-boy supreme!"

"Jason and Sirius Grace."

"Ron Wesley."

"Hazel Levesque"

"Frank Zhang."

"Katelle Sparrow."

Tom rolled his eyes. "Isn't a name like "Katelle" and "Sparrow" a little oxymoron?"

"Isn't a name like Joe Puzzle just a little retarded?" Katelle countered, walking into Tom's room and dumping her bag in a corner. When she returned, she said, "I don't need a bed. I've slept on the ground plenty of times before."

"It gets cold," Tom said doubtfully.

The dark lord carrying about someone being cold? That was a new one.

"I'll be fine," She said coolly, "trust me."

Leo snorted. "She'll probably build a campfire in your room."

"Good luck, mate," Sirius said with mock graveness. "She'll end up killing you somehow. Maybe with the sticks she used to cook marshmallows."

Tom glowered. "If anyone will be getting hurt, it's you people." He turned and slammed the door behind him.

"Cheery one, he is." Katelle muttered. She opened the door and slammed it behind her. They could easily hear her yell, "if you want to eat a bullet, I dare you to touch my stuff."

The next few weeks passed by without too much hassle.

Harry, Percy and the others slowly became accustomed to the year 1938. Percy, Leo, Jason, Nico, Annabeth and Piper had a hard time with their ADHD and ADD, and they found out quickly that Attention Deficit Disorder, Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder and dyslexia hadn't been discovered in 1938. Therefor, Percy could no longer say he was ADHD and expect to get away with moving around a lot. He couldn't say he was dyslexic and be let off of his reading assignment. And _no_ a mental disorder was not an excuse to get out of primary school.

Life was tough.

Their next grand discovery was that Tom had a didactic memory – a photographic memory – to compensate for dyslexia. On top of that, it was very obvious he was ADHD by how easy it was for him to get distracted, and how he didn't stay still for longer than about point one seconds. If Percy hadn't been completely convinced by the picture of Tom Riddle Sr., and the common knowledge that Tom's mother was Merope Gaunt, he would have thought he was a demigod.

As it was, Percy had his doubts. Tom Riddle Sr. looked like any dark-haired, dark-eyed man, and Tom Riddle Jr. had blue-green eyes, not brown. It was possible . . . But no, Merope Gaunt, in all her insanity, wasn't so confused as to not be able to tell a god from a mortal.

Percy, Sirius and Jason sat around one of the small tables, listening to Katelle and Tom spar back and forth verbally. Sirius discussed with Jason Marauder's nicknames with so much seriousness one would have thought he was talking about wasted nuclear materials. Percy was sort of between both of the groups, refereeing for Katelle and Tom, and half-listening to Sirius's nicknames. So far he had heard Puddles, Sparky, Spark-Plug, Scaly-Wag (no. Just, no.) and about a thousand other even worse.

That's when the door of the mess hall opened, and Mrs Cole walked in, arguing with a boy of about eleven or twelve. The boy waved his hand at her, as if dismissing whatever she was saying. Mrs. Cole looked even more flustered than she had when Percy and his friends had showed up at her doorstep. She eventually just gave up and snapped something sternly at the boy, who replied swiftly before walking in Percy's direction.

Percy got a random image of the boy turning into a monster and tearing the place up, leaving them without somewhere to stay and a long explanation to a certain junior dark lord.

The boy had wavy auburn hair that several shades darker than Ron's, and light brown eyes, somewhat like the color of toffee. He was paler than Nico, and his face was curiously . . . blank. There was no emotion showing, no laughter lines, or even frown lines in that matter, no nothing. His face was creepily still.

Katelle looked up, and finally noticed the boy. "Allan! Took you long enough."

"Who's this?" Percy hissed under his breath.

"A friend," she replied. "Allan, sit down."

Allan sat down, still blank faced. Percy resisted the urge to wave his hand in front of the other boy's face. Was he a robot or something? Part Vulcan? Percy thought it was even stranger than the cold, impassive expression was familiar. He supposed he had seen it on many gods and goddesses, namely Hera, goddess of alien abductions and amnesia, Queen of the gods.

"It took you long enough," Katelle repeated.

"I came as soon as I could," Allan said in a strong Scottish accent that almost made up for his slight monotone.

"You are the weirdest people I have ever come across," Tom said, shaking his head.

"I agree," Percy muttered.

Sirius cast a critical look at Allan. He asked Percy in an undertone, "Maybe we can get Piper to brainwash him into acting like a normal human?"

Jason, overhearing, snorted. "Not if you want to take Katelle on in hand-to-hand combat."

The grim animagus sat back with a disgruntled frown.

"Not all of us feel the need to display how we feel for everyone to see," Allan said calmly, nearly making Sirius, Percy and Jason jump. "I keep to myself."

"Understatement," Tom muttered.

Katelle and Allan chatted back and forth, while Percy, Jason and Sirius took back to playing the game _Keeping Tom Around Everyone As Long As Possible._ The rules were talking Tom and attempting to get him to lower himself to the rest of the mortal children. Players got plus two points for a smirk, plus four for an honest smile (which was painfully rare), and plus ten for a real laugh (which never happened).

So far, Katelle was in the lead. Tom seemed to thrive off their rivalry, and actually enjoyed getting in verbal fights with her. Perhaps he was happy he had met someone who was as good at shooting out acid insults as he was. Over the past few weeks, Percy had noticed that the dark lord supreme had been losing his slyness a bit. It seemed Kat's time-bomb like temper was rubbing off on him. Suddenly he was as much as a ticking time-bomb as she was.

Katelle was trying to convince Tom to arm wrestle with her, but the dark-haired boy knew better than to try for public humiliation. Frank, Hazel, Piper, and Ron were the only ones actually spending their time in the mess eating. Percy didn't know where Annabeth and Hermione were, but more than likely it had something to do with architecture and studying. Why they would want to do torturous things, Percy had no idea.

"Oh, come on!" Katelle insisted. "Or at least let me show you some self-defense moves."

"No way." Tom said. "I'm not giving you a chance to kick me."

She snorted. "I don't need you to give me a chance to kick you. I could kick right now."

Tom rolled his eyes, glaring at her. "Right."

Jason laughed. "You never know when you might need some of that self-defense around her."

Tom huffed and crossed his arms over his chest. "Like I said. All talk."

Percy winced. _T – minus three seconds until she kicks his _podex._ Two . . . One . . ._

_WHAM!_

Tom's chair suddenly collapsed, and he tumbled to the ground in an undignified heap. Katelle gloated above him. "Told you."

Tom's face turned red, and he jumped to his feet, throwing his fist at her face. Percy figured Tom gave up on the "treat a girl with respect thing" after she kicked his chair over from five feet away. Katelle danced nimbly out of his reach, laughing obnoxiously. Percy stood up, followed by Leo and Jason. They had huge grins splitting their faces.

Sirius appeared and yelled, "fight! Fight! Fight!"

Leo and Percy joined in, and Katelle rolled her eyes. "Real mature."

Tom's face was red, whether from fury or embarrassment, Percy couldn't tell. Then a look of concentration passed over his face. Kat seemed to realized what was happening, because she lost her teasing look and her eyes narrowed.

"Go on, Riddle." She said in a venomously soft tone. "Do your worse. Let's see who comes out of this one alive."

Tom started talking, but it wasn't in English. It came out a series of hissing and spits, which Percy somehow understood. "_I am much worse than you._"

Kat rolled her eyes, and gave a short laugh, diffusing the tension. She collapsed her staff and stuffed it back up her sleeve. "Snake talk? Real subtle, Tom."

Tom's eyes widened. He asked in a harsh whisper, "You can understand that?"

"It's one of our . . . talents." She explained. "You'd be surprised if you knew how many people were like you."

"How'd -"

"Tom?" Mrs Cole called. She walked in and saw them. "Oh. There's a gentleman who wants to talk to all of you."

Percy assumed 'all of them' meant even the demigods, so he stood up. He supposed this was Dumbledore from 1938 to talk to Tom Riddle about Hogwarts. He looked over at the younger/older Dumbledore, who nodded at him, confirming Percy's assumption. Hermione, Piper and Ron bounded over, and followed Percy and Harry out of the mess hall.

Katelle aimed one last glare at Tom before following them out of the mess hall into the entrance corridor of the orphanage.

Albus Dumbledore of 1938 sat on a bench waiting for them twirling his wand between his fingers. Percy was a little surprised that he would show his wand so openly, since over half the people in the orphanage were mortals, or as the wizards looked at it, muggles. His robes were typical Dumbledore, light spring green with moons and suns embroidered into the fabric.

Percy decided that calling him 'Dumbledore from 1938' was too much of mouthful, so he nicknamed him P. Dumble. He wasn't sure if their Dumbledore would approve, but judging from his get-up, he wouldn't mind in the least.

P. Dumble sat on a bench in the mud room, examining them. "I'm sure you're wondering why I'm here."

Tom rolled his eyes. "He's a doctor. Only doctors look like that."

"Real subtle," Katelle said for the second or third time that day. "You're losing your touch, Riddle."

P. Dumble cleared his throat. "I'm not a doctor, but I am a professor. I'm here to tell you about a school in Scotland for children like you."

Tom glowered at him. "You mean an asylum for mental cases."

"No," P. Dumble said genially. "A school for children special talents. You're a wizards, children. And witches. This school is for young wizards and witches to hone their magic and learn. It's called Hogwarts."

Tom blinked several seconds before shooting out, "prove it."

Percy remembered Dumbledore burning up Tom's wardrobe, which probably didn't endear the man to him. He hoped he didn't do something as drastic, turning one of them into a gerbil, or catfish -

A lone pebble on the floor suddenly wobbled, and then turned into a cup. It turned back into a pebble, leaving Tom gaping at the rock on the floor and the others trying to look shocked. P. Dumble gave Tom a pointed look. "That, Tom, is magic. I'm sure many strange, unexplainable things have happened to you. Right?"

"Like monster attacks?" Percy blurted. This was it. A test. He _had_ to know if Tom was a demigod or not.

"Well, I'm not sure -"

"There was a teacher who had horns once," Tom said quietly. "And a woman who had a crazy dog that turned into a monster. She called herself the mother of all monsters."

Percy shuddered. _Echidna._ And monster attacks. Tom had been attacked by monsters. He looked at Annabeth, who shrugged her shoulder and shook her head. She didn't know what to make of it. Wizards didn't get attacked by monsters. And that meant the twins, Tom's grandchildren – major headache there – were Greek legacies.

Harry glared at him, but Percy ignored it. He was inwardly cheering that one of his guesses finally turned out to be true.

"Animals like me," Tom went on, unaware of Percy's mental triumph. "Snakes find me. I can make people hurt, who are bad to me. I can talk to snakes. Is that normal?"

"Oh, quit with the melodramatics." Katelle said, exasperated. "We get it. Weird stuff has happened to me as well. Time stopping, monsters attacking, blue, pink and green hair. Actually the last one looked awesome."

P. Dumble looked confused, but smiled nonetheless. "I look forward to seeing you at Hogwarts, children. An owl with your invitation letters will be coming soon with a list of things for your first year. I will be your professor in transfiguration."

"Rad." Kat muttered.

"What're we, in the 80's?" Percy joked under his breath.

"You lose track after a while," Katelle whispered back.

P. Dumble stood up, stroking his short auburn beard. His green robes swished around his feet, and if they didn't know him, they'd think he was a little shaken in the head.

"I believe I am done here," P. Dumble said. "Again, I look forward to your first year Hogwarts!"

He left, but right before he walked out of the door, he cast an odd glance at Tom, Kat and Allan. Percy was definitely going to have to find out more about the Allan guy. There were several things about him and Katelle that just didn't add up.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: Chapter numero due, up. Forgive my horrible Italian. **

**I'm sorry if it seems that the story is going slow, and long-winded. The next two chapters might seem like that. I promise, it will pick up the pace. Not all of this is going to go with the book (like Dumbledore didn't meet Tom in his bedroom and so on). **

**I know, I skipped over a lot of time, and that's kind of lazy, but there was nothing to learn there. It would only take up space with boring conversations long-windedness. Just remember, this is not a Tom Riddle is redeemed story. This isn't about making Tom all fluffy and good and so on. There's a bazillion and one other stories about that, and this one has a plot that I'm sticking to that doesn't involve counseling Tom Riddle. So Tom might seem OOC sometimes, but the way I figure it, he's too busy worrying about not being killed by monsters or other evil creatures to think about turning into an evil dark lord. Have monsters jumping at you tends to do that to a person. **

**Plus there's Grindelwald we have to deal with! I'm sure he'll be thrown in somewhere. Or maybe not. I'm not totally sure yet. Review! I love to read your reviews. If there's anything that's bugging you, I'll try to answer as best as I can.**

* * *

><p><strong>Breakout214: yeah, they're a little OOC. Confession time: I actually intended this story to be a separate plot, with nothing to do with the Rise of Magic. I tweaked some things, but it still wasn't perfect. Sorry about that. The only chapters that are like that are the first and second, so after this chapter I hope there isn't anymore OOCness.<strong>

**Sarahnile14: That's one of those "all will be explained in due time" things. Remember, Kronos is Katelle's dad, and I really doubt he was the nicest parent in the world, so she had a rough upbringing. **

**ww1990ww: I've never watched any of the those shows, so I don't really know about it. It would be incredibly difficult to introduce anymore character (there's already thirteen or fourteen). I'm going off the hope that time can change, and that there's isn't a hundred other alternate dimensions out there. Or maybe there will be. That would certainly be a difficult plot hurtle! **

**Well, I hope you guys liked this chapter and all that jazz. Till next time! **

**Oh, and let's say hypothetically our favorite characters (cough, Percy, Jason and Harry, cough) go to a different era in time. What era would you guys like? It could be any time, from the Roman era, medieval, or the Cretaceous Period. Yeah, I'm a sci-fi nerd. **


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter Three

Nightmares in the Bookstore

Tom hated the wait until Hogwarts.

He tried not make it overly obvious, but he was very bored at the orphanage. He enjoyed Katelle's and Percy's company, and he even found Allan wasn't so bad. Sirius and Leo were the class clowns, and he secretly liked to hand around them as well. Although if anyone found out, they'd have a hurricane of fury to deal with. There was something definitely off about all of them, but for life of him, Tom could figure out what it was.

Allan took the reward for weirdness.

He had never once met a person who could run up a wall until Allan stumbled into the orphanage. Allan could literally run up walls, and then find and grab onto handholds that were so small, it shouldn't have been humanly possible. Tom had tested Allan over the past few weeks while waiting for the time to leave for Hogwarts. Allan had lightening reflexes. Again, it wasn't humanly possible to catch something that was thrown at him from behind, when he didn't know there was someone even standing there.

Not to mention, there was the little literally showing no emotion thing. Tom thought he had the blank, impassive face down pat, but Allan beat him hands-down.

Katelle was no exception in the mystery department. She wasn't as quick as Allan or as emotionless, in fact she was pretty much a walking, talking explosive, but she was strong. Tom figured Allan could run or jump his way out of any situation, and Katelle could overpower a man easily. The both of them paired together? It would take an otherworldly foe to challenge them.

Katelle kept a plain-looking brown bag with her at all times. It killed Tom to not know what was in it. He had immense curiosity about anything he didn't know, and having a mystery bag being toted around in front of him was the worst torture. That was why, when she finally forgot about it on the day they were to leave for Hogwarts, Tom jumped on the opportunity to snoop around through her stuff. He had endless questions, and he figured that the bag would answer some of them.

Tom closed and locked the door behind him. Her bag lay undefended on the floor in her corner, where she slept every night. He took a deep breath and turned the bag over, looking for the opening. It was a simple snap clasp, with a handle that looked like it was designed to yank the opening of the bag back quickly.

He quickly opened the bag. There was a pile of letters, maps, books, and a cold, hard metal device at the bottom. The bag was musty smelling, and lined with pockets. There was several daggers and bags of moss and plants. There was a specific book that drew his attention with her name on it. Journal?

He opened it, but instead saw drawings of plants, people, and places he didn't recognize. There were a few journal entries, but they made no sense whatsoever.

_'All the __doors __were__ blocked. They __were__ coming from the sky, __we had__ been overrun, and I ha__d__ no way of finding out where the breech __was__. __We were bound to fail from the beginning. Bloody ridiculous.__ Ten people are dead, and three more are injured. The blood is attracting the __Predators, that and our __heartbeats, __as if this can't get anymore unfair__.__ We only have so much – crap. They're here.'_

The last journal entry ended with a smear of dried blood, and a torn out page. The ink was smudge with what he was sure was tears. The whole book was covered in grass stains, dirt, and more dry blood. It was raggedy and on its last leg, yet she had recently written the part about the dead people. There were several markers on the top of the pages, signalizing important parts, all of which made no sense at all.

He pulled out the letters. They were all addressed from someone called 'Raptor', and were all in a language he didn't understand. It wasn't German, Russian, Latin, French, Italian, or any other language he had ever seen. The letters weren't derived from Latin, or even slightly related to any hieroglyph he'd come across. A few of the books were written in the same language, and the ones that weren't made no sense at all. He assumed they were a code of some sort.

He pawed through the maps. They were of a place that wasn't on Earth. There were elaborate schematics of fortresses, and several of the same place. There were no names, so he assumed Katelle had all of it committed to memory. He felt something prickle down his spine. Someone was coming. He started to scramble through her stuff faster, trying to memorize everything he saw.

Then he saw the pictures.

These weren't drawings. They were full-color pictures. And what was in them was terrifying. He swallowed dryly, looking at the lithe, wiry creature with black and gray scaly skin, a wide, gaping maw dripping with saliva, and beady black eyes. It's head were double domes, and it hunched over on long arms, leaning its weight on curled knuckles.

There was a blur in the background of the picture, faintly the form of the monster. It was stretched across the picture. Whatever it was, it must have moved fast.

He reached down into the pack again. His heart was pounding with a bit of fright. It must have been a fake picture. There was no way monsters like that existed in reality. He pulled out the metal device, and gasped. It was a gun, but no just any kind of gun. The barrel alone was at least sixteen inches long, and it had a curved part sticking out of it with lots of holes and parts that made no sense. He had never seen a gun like this. It was fully loaded, and there were several more magazine clips of ammunition in side pockets.

Another picture fluttered out, and his mouth dropped open again, for about the fiftieth time. He closed his eyes and put everything back. Well, now he knew what the monsters did to their victims, and it wasn't pretty. He shoved everything back in the pack, horrified by the fact he had just seen a person . . . in really bad shape. Why would she have such a picture? It kind of put a damper on their grudging relationship.

He got up and backed away from the pack of horrors. He fumbled with the doorknob frantically, and remembered he locked it. When he got the door open and stepped out into the hall, he tried to slow his breathing. _Focus on the day_, he told himself: they were going to Diagon Alley, and then they were going King's Cross Station, platform 9 and ¾.

They were going to buy things. Books.

Monsters.

They were going to get robes.

Monsters eating people.

They were getting wands.

More monsters -

"Shrimp?"

He yelped and whirled around, his heart rate spiking.

It was Katelle. Of course it was Katelle. Who else called him shrimp? She raised an eyebrow. "Someone's jumpy. Come on. Percy's making the Taxi driver wait for you."

"Um – yeah – coming." He spluttered. "Coming!"

He ran after her, trying to clear his mind. Allan was waiting by the door of the Taxi, and when he saw Tom a shadow passed over his face. Tom tried to ignore this and stuffed himself in the Taxi with Percy, Leo, Sirius, Jason and Annabeth. Allan jumped in after him, officially making the Taxi impossibly packed.

"I don't know what you saw," Allan muttered in Tom's ear, "but don't go looking through Katelle's stuff again."

He nodded shakily. How did Allan know about Tom's escapade? He didn't have time to think about it, because Katelle jumped into the Taxi and threw a few pounds at the driver. "King's Cross Station."

The cab driver stepped on it, racing away down the road to their destination. Tom swallowed and tried not to sound terrified when he said, "So, Katelle. You've never said much about where you came from."

"Parents died." She said. "Got adopted, and then those parents died. Came here. Not much else to say."

"How did your parents die?" Tom asked.

"How did yours?" She bit back.

"My mother died in childbirth," he said cautiously. He didn't like to tell anyone about that. It was like telling someone he was the reason he was an orphan. He made his mother die. "My father . . . I don't know."

Allan pursed his lips, the most emotion he had showed ever. "Well, we have something in common. My father upped and left. I'm pretty sure he got himself killed, though. I had a few brothers, but they're either missing or dead."

"Oh." Tom said.

Katelle groaned irritably. "What do you want to hear? That my mom and dad were torn apart by monsters? They died. End of story."

Chills went up and down his back. Torn apart by monsters? She said it like it was not the truth, but he had seen what was in that pack. The backpack which was slung across her shoulder. Tom shuddered and tried not to be obvious about leaning away from the backpack. Maybe her parents _had_ been torn apart by monsters.

"Who are you?" He finally blurted out. His panic level was raising, and terror passed over him like a hurricane. If he had paid closer attention, he would have noticed the cab driver's cup of water starting to rattle.

"What are you talking about?" Sirius asked, frowning sincerely.

"_Wh__o__. Are. You_?" Tom hissed.

"_We're different,_" Katelle hissed back. "_Don't expect to understand, and don't ask anymore questions._"

Tom felt a surge of anger rise, and the air became charged. There was an explosion as the driver's cup exploded. Water sprayed everywhere, landing droplets on everyone except Percy . The cab driver stuttered out an apology, which Annabeth gracefully accepted. Tom stared at Percy's shirt. The water had landed there. He _knew_ it had. But there was nothing there.

"Later." Percy said. "We'll talk later."

When the cab stopped, Tom was thankful to climb out. There was a tall man with graying hair and dark eyes. He wore robes, so Tom guessed that was Professor Merryweather, their guide. Piper, Albus, Severus, Hermione, Draco, Nico and Ron had already arrived, having left earlier in another cab. Tom joined them, and the professor smiled.

"Ah, there's the rest of you. Off to Diagon Alley, then?" Merryweather asked.

"I guess?" Tom said. He hated how uncertain he sounded. He probably looked like any other normal sniveling kid.

"Oh, come on Snivellous," Sirius said. "It's not so bad."

Severus glared at Sirius darkly, and then back at the hat Sirius was offering. "I would rather hang upside down from a rafter like the bats you so often think I look like that wear that . . . _thing._"

Tom was glad for their bantering. It took his mind off his internal problems.

Professor Merryweather led them through London, through a nasty pub called the Leaky Cauldron, which Tom thought shouldn't be allowed to run, and to an empty wall. The bricks were covered with moss, but that didn't make Merryweather pause. He tapped his wand on the bricks in a certain pattern – which Tom memorized – and the bricks rumbled. They started to move up and down, and formed a doorway to another world.

It was bustling with people. There were wizards and witches in robes, shops lining the street, and merchants calling out the prices of their merchandise. There were several stores that were more popular than others, like the Quidditch store, Flourish & Blotts, and Madam Malkin's. Tom guessed the latter of the two were being crowded because there were hundreds of children bustling around, about to leave for Hogwarts.

The colors were blinding. The windows shone with rainbow coloring, and revealed the oddest things Tom had ever seen. There were shining silver and gold cauldrons, and a shining broom on display in the Quidditch store that the children – and a few pathetic adults – drooled over. Owls flew over head, and there were a few cats and rats in the loose.

"What do you say we get our books first?" Tom asked in a daze.

"That sounds great!" Annabeth and Hermione said at the same time.

Piper laughed. "I thought you were supposed to be _my_ twin, Hermione."

Draco cleaned away invisible dirt from his nails and drawled, "book worms will be book worms."

"Oh, shut up, ferret." Hermione said.

They made their way to Flourish & Blotts, bickering and bantering the whole way. Tom was overjoyed for the peace and quiet of the bookstore. Or at least he was, until the images came back. Who kept pictures of dismembered people in their backpack? Unless it meant something more to them. A remembrance? Revenge? Sick pleasure? He doubted the last one. Katelle might have been odd, but she was not a psychopath.

He closed his eyes and rubbed his temples. When he opened them, he could see the monster, its jaw opened wide and slavering, pointed yellow teeth, its muscles straining to tear him apart joint by joint. He closed his eyes again and lay his head on the table he had sat by. He didn't even realize he had fallen asleep until he started to dream.

Or more like, he started to have a nightmare.

He stood in a barren wasteland. The ground was coarse sand, and there were metal objects sticking out of the sand, like he was standing on the ruins of city after a tornado leveled it, and then a sand storm whipped in and covered the leftovers. The sand crunched under his feet, and the amount of sharp metal sticking up made it impossible to walk around safely.

The sky was dusty, and the only light came from a dull brownish-gold sphere hidden behind unhealthy looking clouds. There were no birds, no animals, no nothing. It was silent. Deathly silent. There was nothing but rolling hills of sand and ruins, and empty skies. There was an air of despair that rang through it, as if the hopes of mankind had once rested on this place, and the heroes had failed.

Then, of in the distance, a low rumble started. Then a huge plume of dirt, dust and smoke shot up in the air in a crescent. It widened, moving closer and closer to Tom like a wild sand storm. The air turned poisonous, scratching at Tom's lungs even though he was just in a dream. He tried to run, but his feet felt like they were lead. The storm blew by him, sand being forced into his eyes, his ears, his nose. He coughed and choked, wheezing as his lungs suffered in the none-breathable atmosphere.

As quick as the storm came, it passed. The wind howled behind Tom, wreaking havoc. That's when Tom saw a slim silhouette. It was deathly thin, and sickly looking like the rest of the place, but it looked like a person. Something about it sent a warning bell off in his head, but he ignored it. There was a person, and he wanted to talk to this person.

"Hey!" He yelled. "Over here! Hey!"

The figure turned, becoming a little . . . less . . . human. It hunched over and rested on its curled knuckles, making popping and snarling noises that Tom could hear from even that far away. It raised its head, as if sniffing the air, scrambling down the dune, sending sand spraying into the air. Tom froze, his entire body turning to led and his heart pounding.

The monster looked straight at him, and let out a harsh cackling and popping snarls that scared Tom more than a monster's roar. Then started to lope over the dunes, its long limbs carrying it with speed that was like lightening. Before Tom even had time to turn and run, the monster was on him, its long sickle-like claws raking across his skin. He felt pain, but there was no injury.

He stumbled back and tripped over a protruding metal beam and fell back _through_ the ground. The nightmare turned watery and washed across his vision, reminding him that it was only a dream. When the feed cleared again, he was standing in a jungle. The woods were thick with vines, palms, and dark green underbrush mixed with florescent colors that made the rainforest so exotic and unique. The jungle was alive with sounds: birds chirping and tweeting, a few distant roars, and the sound of trees groaning and swaying in a breeze.

Light rain pattered down, dampening Tom's fleece overcoat. He looked around, his ocean blue eyes taking in everything. This was a nice improvement to the desert.

Then he heard voices.

"Be careful!" It sounded rather familiar.

"I _am_ being careful! You're the idiot who actually –"

"Would you shut up? You're going to attract every predator in a ten mile radius!" He definitely recognized the voice now. It was Katelle, but she sounded different. Her voice was a little deeper and slightly raspy, the sultry voice thing down-pat. She didn't sound that deep as he knew her. Why the sound of her voice mattered, he didn't know. He had just wasted about a minute focusing on their voices.

Two people slipped out of the jungle into the small opening quietly. It was Katelle and Allan, but they were . . . much older. They were about sixteen or seventeen, wearing strange rough jean trousers and black and green leather jackets that blended into the jungle perfectly. She had a gun like the one in her pack, only bigger, strapped across her stomach. She held it securely and she inspected the opening for threats with her finger on the trigger.

Tom was sort of glad they didn't see him.

Katelle's hair was much shorter and brightly colored, but Allan's was the same as it was when he walked into Wool's Orphanage. They had weapons decked out on every available space of their body, and had packs on their back. Then a third young man with pale hair and violet eyes stepped out of the forest. He was dressed similarly, only he didn't wear a pack. He looked around the clearing cautiously before joining Katelle and Allan.

"You think we lost them?" Katelle asked.

"I don't know," the pale haired guy said. "Predators are fast."

"And they hear amazingly well, I know." Katelle sighed, lifting her gun a little higher for them to see. "So this machine gun. It'll be enough to take them down? Because you know, Ace, I really don't want to go down a-blazing."

The pale haired guy grinned. "Designed it myself. She'll do a lot of damage to those –"

There was a panicked screech of a bird, which was cut off short. Katelle, 'Ace', and Allan froze, lifting their machine guns up at their eye-level and forming a circle.

"Not to say I didn't tell you so," Katelle hissed.

A monster just like the one from the desert leapt into the clearing, snarling and darting around from place to place ridiculously fast.

"But I told you so," Katelle finished.

The monster leapt down and she fired the gun. It wasn't as loud as Tom thought it should have been, muffled and quiet. The monster darted out of the way of her stream of bullets and attacked Allan. He smacked it with the end of the gun and fired. The monster again leapt out of the way with incredible speed. It changed its tactics next, jumping around from tree to tree, circling them from above.

Finally it bounded down, and only Allan's reflexes saved them from being torn to shreds by the monster's claws. He shoved Katelle and Ace out of the way, and fired the machine gun just in time to save himself as well. The monster fell, but he kept firing at it anyway. When he stopped, the monster was full of holes and bleed a nasty yellow-green color. Allan was breathing heavily, and Katelle was white-faced.

That's when something passed through Tom. He gasped as two of the monsters, which the trio called a Predator, slowly edging around them. They both targeted Ace, their slavering maws open wide and snarling quietly. It tensed, getting ready to uncoil and strike the unsuspecting group.

"Look out!" Tom shouted. "There's two behind you!"

Sadly, they couldn't hear him.

The monsters jumped at once. Tom closed his eyes right before the claws landed on their target, but he couldn't close his ears. A yell of pain and surprise startled the air. He opened his eyes, unable to take the pressure of not knowing what was happening. Ace fought off the two Predators, but was loosing. Katelle was held back by Allan, and they were trapped behind another Predator.

The two Predators dragged Ace, kicking and screaming, into the jungle while the last Predator eyed Katelle and Allan. Then it turned tail and ran, with Katelle and Allan firing wildly at its back. The creature fell mid-jump, dead. They ran back into the forest calling desperately after Ace. All they could hear was the cries of animals, and Predators.

The dream ended abruptly as someone shook him awake.

Percy's concerned sea green eyes looked down at him. "You okay?" He asked.

"Um. Yeah, I think." Tom replied, rubbing his eyes. "Nightmare."

Percy's expression turned grave. "What about?"

"It's not important," Tom snapped.

Percy raised his hands in surrender. "Hey! Don't blame a guy for caring." He walked away, not even knowing how stunned he left young Tom Riddle.

_Caring?_ The concept was foreign to him. No one, ever, had cared for him the slightest. There had been Edison Javelin, but he had been adopted by a weird lot of people. They had looked like Army, but slightly different. Ever since then, he hadn't had a friend. Could he count these people as friends? They acted like Edison, in some ways. If that was true, then he suddenly had a lot of friends. About fourteen or fifteen of them, to be precise.

He left Flourish & Blotts in a daze. He had so many questions bouncing around in his head that he was starting to feel overwhelmed. Why were Katelle and Allan so much older in dream? Who were all of these kids? Where did they come from? Most of all: why him? Why did they show up at his orphanage of all places, and pick him to befriend of all people? There had to be a reason, and he wanted to know.

He glanced at Katelle, realizing how much nicer she looked as an eleven year old. She was down-right scary in the dream.

He ran to catch up with them, and stopped by Katelle. "So, how old are you?"

"Si – eleven, duh." She said. "We're going to Hogwarts, remember?"

"So you're all the same age?" Tom asked.

"Yup." She said.

"That an interesting . . . coincidence."

"You know what?" She asked. She looked him straight in the eyes, her own blue-green-gray eyes suddenly seeming so much older. "I don't believe in coincidences."

She stalked away, disappearing into Atla Averice's Robes For All Necessities. Tom stopped, frowning in confusion. What was that supposed to mean? She was trying to tell him something, he was sure, but he didn't know _what_ she was getting at. Maybe it was her way of saying that their ages weren't a coincidence. He had no clue whatsoever.

He followed the large group into Atla Averice's to get his Hogwarts robes, trying to leave behind the waves of doubts, confusion and questions that threatened to drown him. Atla was a slim, older woman with white hair and misty green eyes. She kept her place very cool, and it was covered in the latest fashion designs for robes. She had hundreds of white lilies all over her store, tinting the air with a sweet smell.

As soon as they were fitted for robes, they left to collect the rest of the odds and ends of their Hogwarts necessities. When they finished, they were only left with two more things: pets and wands. Tom hoped he could have a snake. He liked snakes, and he was sure they liked him, unlike other people. And it turned out that said people had gotten their wands while he was sleeping, with the exception of Sirius, Katelle and Allan.

He voted to get his wand after he got a pet, however. He said he wanted to save the best for last, but in all honesty he really wanted to get a pet snake. Why couldn't he, when Nico had a pet snake he carried everywhere called Sheraleth? Sheraleth always mourned for two previous owners, whom she referred to as 'boss' and 'little one'. Her master and 'little one' had, according to their few conversations, gone missing, and no trace could be found. Since attempting to console the snake was impossible because he apparently looked like their doppelganger, he steered clear of her.

Eeylop's Owl Emporium was much more cheerful than Sheraleth, though, and he enjoyed the shop very much. There was hundreds of animals, and even more bright, shining eyes glinting in the cool aisles. He cheered up even more when he discovered the reptile section, which was filled with snakes, lizards, and a few other types of reptiles. As soon as walked by the snakes, they started calling out to him in their whispering, hissing voices.

"_A young ssspeaker of our tongue!"_ A snake cried out.

"_We have waited many yearsss for you to come!"_ Another called.

"I_ have waited yearsss for the young massster to come, you mean,_" a louder voice hissed.

"_You've waited yearsss for me to come?_" Tom asked with very little amusement. _"What isss it with everyone knowing about me before I know them?" _

"_Young massster! Bosss,"_ the same loud voice said above the mutters of the other snakes, _"It isss not yet time to sssay, but I am happy to sssee you!"_

"_I can't sssee you,_" Tom replied, scanning the snakes.

"_I am the lassst cassse on the left, young bosss,"_ The snake said quickly. _"I am called __Averanth."_

"_Averanth . . . ,"_ Tom mused, walking to end of the glass cases of snakes to find a snake about four feet long, with brilliant green and silver scales on her back, and a creamy stomach. She blinked bright round black eyes at Tom, a pink tongue darting out of her mouth.

"_Do you approve of the name, young massster?"_ The snake asked boisterously. _"Or are you going to rename me?"_

"_No,"_ Tom hissed back. _"I like the name. Keep it."_

"_Good,"_ Averanth shot back snappily._ "I planned to."_

"_You're rather feisssty,"_ Tom said with a soft laugh. _"That'sss another thing that'sss bothering me: everyone isss ssso bad tempered."_

Averanth seemed to have the think about her reply as Tom lifted her from her case gently. She slithered up his arm and curled around his neck, resting her head on his shoulder. He expected her to come back with some philosophical speech, but instead she said, _"I think they have jussst been living with you for to long, young massster."_

"_That makesss me feel ever ssso much better, Averanth."_ Tom rolled his eyes, patting her head.

He left the pet store, and realized he only had one more thing to get before they left for Hogwarts. By the end of that day, he would be sorted into a house, which he would stay in for the rest of his life. This day, while a small notch on the graph, would direct his fate. No matter how small it seemed, it would be grand in the long run. The thought scared him more than he wanted to admit, but there was no hiding it. He was terrified.

He met up with Katelle, Sirius and Allan in front of a small store. On the front of the store, the sign said: OLLIVANDER'S WANDS, _Finest Wands Since 328 BC._ The store was old and dusty looking, with widows filled with boxes and papers. When he opened the door, he turned up dust and the sunlight was visible through it. Far off, the shop was too dark to see in clearly. There could be anything hiding in the shadows, waiting to jump out and eat him.

He noticed the glaces of the others, and he squared his shoulders and walked in. He didn't want to seem like a coward in front of Katelle and Allan, who, despite for being on eleven, seemed like the type who could have a monster scream in their faces and wouldn't blink. If he wanted to compete with that, he was going to have to try hard. Maybe Gryffindor was his house, after all? Slytherin sounded so much like him, though . . .

Back to present. Where was –

An old man slid out of one of shelves on a latter, a few wand boxes tucked under his arm. He studied the boxes on the shelves intently, his luminous owl-like silver eyes glowing as he muttered under his breath. He seemed preoccupied by something, and whatever it was must have been incredibly interesting, because he didn't notice them at all.

Finally, the old man looked up and saw them. A shadow passed over his face, but then he broke into a smile. "Ah, long have I awaited this day."

* * *

><p><strong>AN: So, Tom probably seemed a little (lot) OOC here. But, he's eleven. And he has these weird kids that know more than they should about him, carry around pictures of dead people, and have journals talking about traumatic experiences. He has a right to freak out. I would, at least. **

**So I'm posting _really_ early. Don't get used to it. But it's Rosh Hashanah, so I decided to celebrate with an extra chapter. If you don't know what Rosh Hashanah is, it's a Jewish holiday (I'm not Jewish, but I like some of their holidays) which celebrates repentance and life and so on. And it has apples dipped in honey and pomegranates. (The best part of it, lol). **

**I've been going through my notes (yeah, I take notes for this. There's a lot that's going to be going on) and I don't think it's going to be as many chapter as the previous story, but it will be denser in quality. So, if you liked the chapter, review! If there was something that irked you (Tom's OCCness, sorry), or if there's any questions, I'll try to answer them.**

**ww1990ww: yeah, well there's new in the time travel business. And like some I highly look up to said once: "it's so conspicuous, it's inconspicuous." I'll have to check out those books. Adding some more books to my personal library of Congress couldn't hurt . . .**


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter Four

Deja Vu on Hogwart's Express

"Ah, long I have awaited this day," Ollivander said.

"What does that mean?!" Tom practically shrieked. "Why is everyone saying that! And no one is explaining _anything!_"

"I sort of agree," Sirius muttered.

"Only sort of?" Katelle replied.

Ollivander only smiled. "It will make sense one day, young Mr Riddle. I believe you are here for your wands?"

Tom gaped, but before he could lapse into another hysterical fit, Katelle started talking. "Yeah. I'll go first. I'm right-handed, forced, naturally left-handed but I've never really used my left hand. If that makes any sense."

Ollivander nodded. "You're flexible with both hands, though . . . hmm . . ." He disappeared behind a shelf, and when he came back he held several more wand boxes in his hands. He systematically set them down, muttering the wood and core under his breath.

He looked up and gave Katelle a critical look. "You have a rather special father, don't you?"

Katelle spluttered, but Ollivander waved his hand. "No worries. Try this one: Redwood and phoenix feather, ten inches, nice and supple." He handed her the red and gold colored wand, which she seemed to like.

She waved it through the air, and hundreds of numbers flew out of its tip, wrapped in chains and spinning in spirals before dissolving into the air. Her eyes widened and her face turned stricken and pale. She looked back at Allan, who shrugged. She sighed and turned the wand around her hands carefully, as if inspecting it for traps. Finally she looked up at Ollivander and pursed her lips.

"I'll take it."

Allan's dark eyes glinted with worry. "Kat –"

"No, Allan!" She snapped. She glared at Ollivander. "How much for it?"

"That will be eight galleons," Ollivander said.

Katelle handed him the galleons quickly from her sack, and walked to the back of the store to sit in a rickety looking wooden chair.

Allan went next, and his wand reacted as strangely as Katelle's. A storm of lighting and flying bits of debris spiraled out of the tip of the wand, filling the room with the smell of ozone and fresh, cool mountain air. The fresh air was so pleasant, Tom found himself leaning into the wind, which was so much nicer than the musty London air around his orphanage. Allan looked at the wand with a mixture of longing and sadness.

"That's subalpine fir, also known as Rocky Mountain fir. It's a rare type of wood – only found in North America. The core is dragon heartstrings, eleven and a half inches, quite snappy, but once it finds its master, it is a very loyal wand." Ollivander looked at it fondly before setting it back in its box wrapping it with dark brown paper. "Allan Saures, you say?"

Allan hesitated, and then asked, "how do you know my name?"

"Never mind that!" Ollivander said cheerfully. "Oak, unicorn tail hair, twelve inches. Jamie Saures, you father, correct?"

Allan shook his head. "There's no way. My father is from the Samoan islands."

"Samoa?" Tom blurted. "I thought their really big and strong?"

Allan scowled. "What are you trying to say?"

"That you're a shrimp," Katelle flatly. "I agree."

"And," Allan said loudly, addressing Ollivander, "Jamie is my little brother. And he's dead. How could you mistake him as my father?"

A look of comprehension passed over Ollivander's face. "I see. Curious, very curious."

"Is that his trademark?" Sirius muttered. "'Curious, so very ever so much curiosity over here."

"Talk about it," Katelle grumbled.

"That was barely a passable sentence," Allan said.

Tom frowned. Sometimes following their conversations was like figuring out a different language. Only that language had code words that only the native speakers knew, and decoding them meant asking them what it meant. Like when Leo woke up once and said, "'Sup?" Tom had stood there blinking at him. He had thought Leo meant supper, but it turned out 'sup' was one of their strange ways of greeting. Same as 'what's up', 'wassup', 'wazzup', and 'hey', which was _not_ spelled like 'hay', and must not be fed to cows. Don't ask.

If that wasn't enough, there was 'sucktastic' (Leo), 'gods of Olympus' (just about all of them, whatever it meant), 'yo' (he still didn't know what that was supposed to mean) and a few others that he couldn't get for the life of him. Swag being one of them. Every time one of the kids said something like that, he was wanted to shriek at them to speak in normal English. They said was a New Yorker thing. Tom said they were insane.

"Mr Riddle?"

Tom jumped, startled from his trail of thought. Ollivander held a few wands in his hands. "You favor your left hand, do you not?"

"Um," Tom cursed himself for stuttering. He never stuttered! "Yeah." _Yeah? What the heck . . . what is heck? What the whatever the bloody well you want to insert here is 'yeah'?_ He coughed and shifted, noticing the strange looks of Allan and Katelle, and the pride of Sirius. He scowled and straightened. "Yes. I am left handed. May I ask how you know this?"

Ollivander only smiled, and offered a wand "aspen and unicorn hair, eleven inches" but snatched it from Tom's hand before he had a chance to swish it. Then Tom was given, "cypress, dragon heartstrings, twelve inches," but he ended up upending a few racks of wands. Next, "eucalyptus and phoenix feather, twelve and a half inches," but the same thing happened. Three wands later, Ollivander's Wands, Finest Wands Since 328 BC, had no windows, no chairs – Katelle was ticked – and most of the wands on the shelves had been knocked down.

Finally, Ollivander pulled out a newer-looking box – the only box that hadn't been knocked down from the previous wand "holly, phoenix feather, eleven inches" and wiped off non-existent dust. He returned to the counter with the box, and carefully pulled out a pale yellow-white wand. He held it up in front of Tom, his owlish eyes glowing in a ray of light gliding in through the window.

"Yew and phoenix feather, thirteen and a half inches, unyielding. This wand will conform to one master, and only one master. This feather was given by a friend of mine's phoenix not long ago, I hadn't expected it to find a master so soon, but who knows?" Ollivander twirled the wand between his fingers expertly. Tom resisted the urge to snatch it out of his hand.

_Give it, give it, give it, give it, give it . . . _

"Why don't you give it a swish?"

The words had barely left his mouth before Tom snatched the wand and jerked it through the air as if it were a sword. It seemed like the only natural thing to do with it, actually. A stream of green and blue sparks flew from the wand, flowing through the air like a tidal wave. He smiled triumphantly at his wand. One master, and only one master. Surely that meant Slytherin was his house?

_Back on this?_

Tom stiffened. That didn't sound like his usual internal thinking voice. It had been cool, but comforting, like the beach on a still day, the waves gentle and lapping.

_I must be going insane,_ he thought.

No one answered.

Sirius got his wand last, a dogwood and dragon heartstrings, ten inches. The wand sprouted red and gold sparks in the air like fireworks, which made the dog animagus smile. When they finished paying up for their wands, they met the rest of the group near the entrance of Diagon Alley, the Leaky Cauldron. It wasn't the best set up, in Tom's perspective, but no one else seemed to care about that.

_And since _when_ did you care about other people caring?_ Tom chided himself. These other kids were making him disgustingly soft.

Professor Merryweather didn't help. He was one of those teachers you couldn't help but be fond of. They were wise, good at what they taught and made it fun. Professor Merryweather ran through a list of the jokes he had told in class the year before, and the names of the games we was going to introduce in the new school year. And the best thing was, he was the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher. He knew a plethora of things about defensive spells, offensive spells, wards and a thousand and one other things that went over Tom's head.

When Tom glanced at Harry, he could see him looking up and sky with his hands clasped and saying "thank you, thank you, thank you!" to himself. He didn't know what it meant, but Harry looked pretty funny like that.

_Pretty funny? Seriously? Wait a minute. Seriously. Since when do you use words like that? This is so, so, so annoying. As soon as I get to Hogwarts I'm dumping – there I go again. Dumping. I'm so doomed. _Tom argued himself mentally while Merryweather led the way to King's Cross Station. The entire way, through Taxi cabs, crazy – _crazy? Really?_ – crowds and he even stayed lost in his thoughts when they stopped in front of the barrier between platform nine and ten.

"Uh, Tom?" Sirius's voice reached his ears, breaking his line of thought. "Were you listening?"

Tom looked up, grasping desperately for words. "Oh – um. Yeah. I was listening. Go on."

"You first." Sirius said with a devious grin.

"What?"

"You go first!"

"Go . . . where first?" Tom asked, gritting his teeth irritably.

"You weren't listening," Sirius sang childishly. "I guess Professor Merryweather has to explain it again."

Tom willed himself not to turn red with a mix of humiliation and anger. "Sorry. I was . . . preoccupied."

"Understatement of the year," Katelle muttered.

"Shut it," Tom snapped back."

"Oh my gods!" Leo gasped dramatically, grasping his face and widening his eyes. "Our little Tommy is learning . . . _slang!_ He's all grown up!"

Sirius wiped a fake year from the corner of his eye. "I'm so proud of him."

"Oh just be quiet!" Tom snarled, although the use of the word 'gods' with a plural hadn't escaped him. Was that why they were so strange? Did they believe in ancient gods?

"Doth mother know thy speaketh such strong words?" Leo asked.

"What is it with you and archaic English?" Tom snapped. "And you don't even do it right!"

"Children," Professor Merryweather said sternly. "Listen. The barrier is the entrance to platform nine and three quarters, all you have to do is run straight through it. Don't be afraid, all you have to do is run and you'll be on the other side before you know it. Go on, Tom."

Once again, Tom found himself being thrust in the role of leading. Was it just him, or where they doing this on purpose? He glanced back at the others, and they all wore the identical expressions of: _what're you, scared?_ He scowled and gripped the handle of cart tightly. He wasn't a coward. Gryffindor or Slytherin? Bravery or cunning? Both? Snake in lion's clothing? Now that was sly and cunning.

_This again?_

_Who are you?_

_Someone who has risked a lot to keep you alive._

_Very reassuring. _

_So what is it? Bravery, or cunning? _

Tom ignored the voice and started to run. The barrier came closer – was he really trusting a man he just met? – and the cart was speeding up – he really wanted to close his eyes – and the barrier was only seconds away – would he crash into the wall? Would the muggles see? – the cart was out of control – he really wanted to close his eyes – time slowed down. Suddenly he was running at a much slower – or was it the same? – pace as before. He still wanted to close his eyes, but he wouldn't let the others have the teasing material of knowing he closed his eyes. Almost there – any time now – would it hurt? Maybe –

He passed through the barrier.

Once on the other side, he dug his heels into the ground and stopped. His heart pounded, and he had broken out in a stressed sweat. He stopped the cart and let go of handles, slowing his breathing so when the others came through it wouldn't be overly obvious he was afraid. His head a strange rushing feeling, as if he was injected with tons of caffeine. He had only had coffee once, and he had literally attempted to jump up one of the walls and do a flip. Suffice to say, it hurt and Mrs Cole hid the caffeine from then on.

Suddenly Percy appeared from the solid brick wall. His eyes were wide open, and he had a look of extreme concentration on his face. When he realized he wasn't a dead, he started laughing and whooped. Tom felt a smile tug at the corner of his mouth. Just then, Sirius sprinted through, yelling something about a marauder. Sirius stopped on a dime and jumped in the air and pumped his fist. He held a hand up in front of Percy, who smacked his hand.

Tom was somewhat confused by this, but he had more to worry about when they both threw arms around his shoulders, nearly knocking him over forward. Sirius gave a crazy laugh. "So, what did you think, Tommy boy?"

Tom scowled. "Don't call me –"

"Oh, you know you thought it was fun," Percy said, ruffling Tom's hair with his knuckles.

"Actually I don't –"

"Adrenaline rush!" Sirius cheered. "Next level: jumping off a high building. Any building will suffice."

"I don't think –" Their cheer was rubbing off on him. He felt the humor rising up in his chest and threatening to burst out. Where was the years of self-control and stoic personality that he built up for so long?

"I will teach him to prank, joke and I will name him George," Percy cut Tom off.

There was a three-way wrestling match going on, with Tom in the middle, and Sirius and Percy on the outside. Tom was trying not to laugh and to get them off of him, and Percy and Sirius were trying to get him to crack up. So far Tom suspected he would succumb to the temptation of laughter soon if he didn't escape somehow.

Katelle ran through the barrier, took one look at them, and burst into laughter. She leaned over her cart and laughed at them. Tom couldn't hold it in anymore. He spluttered and laughed, fighting Percy and Sirius off of him as hard as he could, but the two boys were surprisingly strong. Finally Tom became so tired he just gave up and threw his arms around the other boys, like a normal boy would with friends.

Harry was in the sight of his life when he ran through the barrier. His mouth dropped open in shock when he saw Tom Marvolo Riddle shoving Percy and Sirius around like brothers and taking their friendly abuse rather well. He looked at Katelle, who was recovering from her bout of laughter. She straightened and grinned at him, flashing him a thumb's up with both hands.

"Has the dark lord in waiting gone mad?" Harry asked Katelle under his breath.

"He's cracked," she whispered back. "Totally, utterly insane. Sirius and Percy had accomplished our mission."

Leo ran through next. He took in the scene and grinned. "Does making a nuts dark lord insane make him sane?"

"That makes no sense." Katelle said.

"You say that all the time," Leo said nonchalantly.

One by one, the rest of them ran through the barrier. Draco gaped openly at Tom, and Piper couldn't wipe her smile from her face. Annabeth had a look in her eyes that she got when she finished a complicated schematic. Frank looked confused, and Hazel was threatening to burst with happiness. Part one of their plan was ready: they only had to get part two underway. Tom would have to be in a certain house for their plan to work, and it wasn't in the one he was supposed to be in. Failure wasn't an option in this instance.

Jason came through last. He smiled at Tom, Percy and Sirius's antics and said, "so, looks like they're going to be the new trio?"

Ron crossed his arms and gave a small pout. "But we're the Golden Trio."

"Don't worry," Harry said. "Sirius will want to revive the spirit of the Marauders. The Golden Trio will be us forever."

Hermione smiled, "and they better not forget it."

"Okay, okay – okay guys!" Tom said sharply. "The train will be leaving soon – we have to put it where the first year luggage goes."

Sirius sighed dramatically. "Fine. We'll discuss the Marauders later."

Harry, Hermione and Ron laughed. Sirius never failed to live up to their expectations. Dumbledore smiled serenely, taking the scene in with something like relief. He had always felt guilt about the hard turn Tom Riddle had made in his life. Tom hadn't started out an evil person, but circumstances, people and environment had hardened him to the point of no longer caring about anything. Being a half-blood sorted into Slytherin didn't help much either.

Dumbledore was just happy Tom got a second chance. Not everyone got that chance.

Hogwarts Express hadn't changed much since the time Percy, Harry and Co. had come from. The large, shiny red engine blew steam in the station as it whistled its intentions of leaving soon. When they finally piled on to the train, pushing and shoving each other and being the loudest people in platform nine and three quarters, they set to finding a compartment. Easier said than done when you were a group of thirteen plus people.

They tumbled down the corridor of the train like a hurricane, laughing, shouting and fake-punching each other (the boys). They earned several stares from other students like sneers (the Malfoy-like students), scoffs (the Percy Weasley types), grins (Sirius logged them away for possible Marauder recruits), and blank stares (the confused 30's girls). Finally they found a compartment with only one kid in it, and the kid didn't seem to notice them.

They paused and looked at each other. Roughly half of them would be able to fit in there comfortably. If they could reach an agreement to who went where –

Percy, Jason, Leo, Sirius, Frank, Tom (yes, even the glowering dark lord in waiting), Harry and Nico jumped at once to get in. Basically all of the boys rushed headlong into the compartment without a second thought. Percy and Nico scraped up their shoulders on the sides of the compartment, and the others, one way or another, tripped over each other and ended up in a heap on the floor. By the end of the turmoil, Percy, Nico, Leo and Sirius had gotten the seats that they wanted, and everyone else was piled awkwardly in the compartment.

Katelle glowered angrily in her corner. She was squashed up against Frank, who was pressed against Hazel, who was struggling to breath with Sirius on the other side of her. Percy had the best spot across from the boy, with Annabeth and Piper to his right side, and Jason to his left. Tom was practically riding up the wall in an attempt to not touch anyone. So far, he was failing in his mission miserably. Leo held his breath in an a full-force attempt to not burst into flames in a compartment full of combustible demigods and wizards.

For a few seconds it was silent. Now that they weren't making a tornado of sound, the train seemed fairly quiet.

Surprisingly, through out the entire ordeal, the mystery boy hadn't budged from his sleep. He was pressed against the side of the compartment with his face on one hand, and the other hand resting of a piece of metal sticking out from his jacket. He looked like he had gone through a war zone, with ripped and frayed clothes, and cuts and bruises over his face. His curly sand colored hair was matted and hung in oily ropes, as if he hadn't had time to bathe for a while. There were dark circles under his eyes that spoke of many sleepless nights, and he looked skinny and dehydrated.

"You pay for food, I'll pay for water?" Percy muttered.

"Maybe I can get my mom to give him some new clothes?" Piper asked under her breath.

"In the 1930's?" Annabeth replied. "Aphrodite doesn't even know you exist."

"True."

The sat for a few seconds staring at the kid. Percy frowned a turned his head to level his stare with the boy's face. He was about twelve years old, maybe going into his second year. There was something very familiar about him . . .

"Theon!" Percy yelled.

Everyone jumped, and then the recognition kicked in. Jason leaned over and shook his shoulder. "Theon! Theon, buddy, it's us!"

Faster than lightening, Theon had woken up, pulled a long wicked-looking blade from his jacket and had it pressed against Jason's head. Jason froze, staring at the long, shining sword with a little apprehension.

"Uh, Theon?" Percy said. "It's us."

Theon blinked, as if he was coming out a bad dream. "Wait – this – impossible."

Meanwhile, Tom looked confused. Annabeth took a deep breath. They were going to have to tread lightly. "Oh, Theon! We haven't seen you ages. What have you been up to in the States?"

_How did you get here? Where did you come from? How have you been in you travels?_

Theon swallowed and sheathed his sword. His face broke into a smile, which looked painful with his cracked lips. "It really is you guys. I thought was another Predator."

"You call them Predators?" Annabeth asked, deciding to throw caution into the wind. They would have to "explain everything" to Tom later.

Theon snorted. He sat down with a huff, cross his arms. His eyes were stormy. "Why shouldn't I? I feel better calling them something that pronounceable, and the mortal's name for them. Sort of puts it in the gods' faces."

Piper suddenly threw herself at him with a hug. "We were so worried! The gods told us they'd just booted you into a different time, and we were so worried!" She pulled herself away with a bright smile.

"The gods?" Tom yelled. "What the bloody hell is going on?"

"Oh, shut up," Theon snapped. "You're the reason I'm here anyway."

"What?" Several people said at the same time.

Nico held up his hands in a time-out gesture. "Hold up! Before we get to anomalies and so on, where are the twins? Where is Ivan and Aiden?"

"How many of you are there?" Tom grumbled.

Theon sighed, "I don't know. We got separated after the Cretaceous Period. They stayed behind to hold off a pack of _Gigantosaurus_. I had the run through the anomaly, and it closed before they came through. I haven't seen them since then."

"You know," Tom said, "it's rather rude to –"

Theon snapped his fingers and concentrated on Tom. "We're having a discussion about sports in the States. There is nothing of interest over here."

Tom blinked, and then rolled his eyes. "No, I'm actually fairly sure you were talking about gods and time travel. I could be mistaken."

"He's immune," Theon said in disbelief. "Is he . . .?"

"We don't know for sure," Percy said quickly before Harry could answer "no!"

"Don't know what for sure?" Tom demanded furiously, his face turning red.

"I thought he was Slytherin?" Theon asked in ancient Greek.

"Now that is just rude," Tom snapped.

Katelle snickered and replied in the same language, "Puzzles over here has picked up a bit of temper."

"No thanks so _someone,_" Leo said.

"Watch it, Green Lantern," She said dangerously.

"Ouch. Low blow." Leo muttered.

"Anyways," Annabeth continued, "Have you heard of Felix or the twins since then? At all?"

"Felix wasn't with us long. And considering that I just lost them yesterday, I think – it's hard to tell time with all of this traveling stuff – no, I haven't." Theon replied. "It was like a cruel chance of fate. We had been stuck in the Cretaceous for several weeks, and we were all sick to death – no pun intended – of dinosaurs. _Finally_ an anomaly opens up when we set to rights the 'unbalance'," he made air quotations and said it with an unflattering sneer, "and then the _Gigantosaurus_ came and ruined everything. They had been on our tails for days, so it was only a matter of time, but it was frustrating."

Nico had turned very pale. "So . . . you don't even know if they were . . . killed?"

Theon shrugged. "As far as I can tell, they're still alive." He held up a necklace that was tied around his neck. "We were given this. It was so we could tell if one of us got killed. So far, they're alive. That doesn't mean they're uninjured, though."

"But they're stuck eighty-five million years in the past?" Nico asked.

"Pretty much," Theon said. "At least until another anomaly opens up, but who knows where _that_ would take them? They could end up thousands of years on the future with those Predators attacking non-stop." He shuddered. "That's enough to drive anyone mad."

"There has to be some way to rescue them," Percy said, gesturing around as if there was something in the immediate vicinity that would send them back in time to the twin's new era.

"Not until I correct an inconsistency," Theon said, "and that inconsistency includes Tom Riddle over there."

Tom perked up. "What inconsistency includes me?"

"He's learning to speak ancient Greek already?" Theon muttered. "Fast learner."

"You have no idea," Katelle growled under her breath.

Allan suddenly joined in on the conversation, but in Latin rather than Greek. "We're going to have some problems with him. Katelle – he got into your stuff today. Probably scarred him for life."

Katelle reared up like an angry cobra. "What? He snooped? I told him that I'd shoot him if he –"

"Yeah, about that?" Percy said, "he's been having nightmares, and I think they're important."

"Has he said anything about them?" Theon asked. "Lately dreams are the only things we can rely on."

"No," Percy sighed. "Sirius," he lapsed back into English, "how was that Marauders thing going on?"

Sirius beamed. "I have several people I'm looking at for interviews."

"You're going to interview people for a band of prankers?" Frank asked incredulously.

"Pranks?" Leo, Jason and, surprisingly, Tom seemed to suddenly start listening a little more intently.

"Yes!" Sirius said cheerfully. "Like: Tom Riddle, what do you think of pranks?"

"I don't," Tom replied flatly.

"You're hired!" Sirius cheered.

"That was easy," Jason said. "Can I be in?"

"Oh, can I?" Leo asked.

"Whoa," Percy said, "you're forgetting me."

Theon smiled wanly, shaking his head. "We're getting off-topic. People are always trying to tamper with time. There is one man and a woman – I haven't been able to figure out who they are yet – who is always making this disturbances. I really think that as soon as he's taken out, our lives will become a lot easier."

"How –"

"I don't know how to identify him at once." Theon said.

"Then how –"

"I don't know how to catch him." Theon answered before Percy even finished his question.

There was silence for a few minutes, with the exception of Sirius, Leo, Jason and Tom. They were discussing Marauders names. Sirius wanted to be called Padfoot – surprise, surprise – Leo tried to patent Bad Boy Supreme, but stuck with Fang. Jason stuck with Piper's nick-name, Sparky, and Tom wouldn't let any of them come up with nicknames for him. Sirius told him that when they busted out the animagus potions, Tom would have a nickname come Hades or high water.

Tom had replied that 'busted' wasn't the proper way to word his sentence. Leo had said a comment about the British cult of proper people, which had a sparked an argument about the sloppiness of Americans and the stuffiness of British, with Leo and Jason on one side, and Tom holding out on his own fairly well on his own side. Sirius at back and watched with a devilish grin on his face.

Annabeth kept glaring at the loud boys over her book, which made them quiet down for a few minutes, but they would gradually get louder until she glared at them again.

The trolley lady went by – Percy thought she looked just like the woman from their original time – and Leo and Jason had to shut up while Tom enjoyed his first bite at candy ever. Unfortunately, that candy had turned out to be a beeswax Bertie Bott's All Flavor candy. Tom hadn't trusted anyone else to give him candy after that. In fact, Sirius had cheerfully pointed out, Tom was probably be so terribly frightened of candy, he would never eat it again.  
>That wouldn't do, so Tom proved him wrong by nearly eating all the chocolate frogs – much to the consternation of Ron and Frank.<p>

Theon looked very relieved to be having his first meal in weeks without having to worry about going on the run, or fighting off a super-monster. He didn't have any information about Felix, but he did tell them that the small son of Boreas was safe. According to Theon, Boreas had snatched his son away in another time in future so Felix didn't have to be involved in the business of time travel. Hermes hadn't had the chance to help Theon out, mainly because god/wizard was a bigger thing than god/magician for some reason that the demigods couldn't figure out.

The train rolled on for hours, small countryside towns, forests, and rolling and rocky hills blurring by. After a few hours, Theon fell asleep again. Tom pulled out his books and started to read, and Annabeth took his example and started to read as well. Sirius pouted as more and more of the occupants of the train "enlightened" themselves to their "first time" at Hogwarts.

Percy was rather excited despite that. The first time he had been at Hogwarts was as a "transfer", and it hadn't been very real. This time, they were going to Hogwarts to actually learn magic because they needed to, not to learn about the enemy. They had an idea that would help them with the imbalance of the world, but it was crazy. Then again, Percy reminded himself, when had they ever had a plan that _wasn't_ life threatening and insane?

Percy glanced at Tom, who was enraptured in _Hogwarts, A History._ It was odd to think that the entire balance of the world rested on the small shoulders of one unstable eleven year old boy. Percy wondered if that was how Chiron and Poseidon had felt like when Percy went on his first quest to find and return Zeus's Master Bolt. He suddenly felt a need to thank Chiron and Poseidon for their belief in him, because he didn't have much belief in Tom.

After all, how could anyone believe in a child who was fated to rise as a dark lord?

* * *

><p><strong>AN: So, I do have to put in some mistrust in Tom. He _is_ after all the dark lord junior. **

**This might have seemed a bit like a filler chapter, but Theon was reintroduced! Give him a break for being a little down and out - he was booted out of his time by the gods, forced to survive on his own for awhile, and then he had to abandon Ivan and Aiden in the Cretaceous period. **

**I'm thinking I'm going to have them going to a mix of different eras. There a ton of characters, so that leaves a lot of room for groups to go to different eras. (hint hint).**

**If anyone's still wondering, Tom's whole "dark lord" thing isn't going to the huge thing there. I mean, just because he turned into an evil psychopath does not mean he acted like one when he was eleven. _Any_ eleven year old would be disturbed by nightmares and weird people threatening death upon them (even Sherlock was disturbed by his dog Redbeard getting put down, and he's a *cough* high functioning *cough* sociopath). **

**The next chapter's going to from Draco's point of view of sorts. I have to explain why here's there and the sudden change in personality. *Heavy sight*. For some reason I was imagining Master Yoda in Ollivander's place during this part. I don't know why. I'll try to update again in two - four days. Review what you liked or didn't! **


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter Five

Book: _Sorting Hat Most__e__ Evile_

As Draco Malfoy walked off Hogwarts Express for the "first" time, he wasn't sure what to make of everything. He still didn't exactly like Harry Potter, but he also couldn't very well say he hated him anymore. The word mudblood no longer meant what it had to him once, and the word half-blood had definitely expanded in meaning. If only he had known in first year the twins he tormented were not only the sons of a major god, the lord of the Underworld to be precise, but directly descended from the dark lord.

The time travel thing confused him a little. If they changed Tom Riddle so much that he wouldn't be evil, wouldn't that mean the twins would never be born? Theon hadn't seemed worried about this. The young time traveler had figured that if they did change time, the only thing they would have to do was step back into their time and adapt quickly. Since adapting seemed to a talent of demigods, that was no problem.

Something occurred to Draco. He stopped in his tracks, which made everyone else pause. "Oh no."

"What?" Percy looked alarmed.

"Epilepsy?" Annabeth asked quickly.

"What – no!" Draco snapped. "I am not _that_ inbred. No, we're in the past, right?"

" . . . Yeah," Annabeth said.

"That means my grandfather, Abraxas Malfoy, will be here in his first year." Draco said, full of dread. "Sirius, that means your father will be in his second year."

Harry hesitated, and then said, "my grandfather will be here. Charlus Potter."

"Orion Black and Walburga Rosier," Sirius said with a grimace. "Maybe I can change that up a bit . . ."

"We're here to change _Tom's_ future," Piper said sternly, "not yours."

"Yeah, yeah," Sirius muttered.

They walked down the path way, following the sounds of the gamekeeper's voice. Draco never thought he would admit this, but he sort of missed Hagrid. The half-giant had a way of making the journey seem bright and cheerful, while this man, Mr Pringle, was down-right depressing. He was hunched over, had a long crooked nose, and muttered "this way, firs' years," in a half-grumble, so it sounded as if he was talking to himself.

The boat-ride was the same as he remembered, and so was castle as they walked in through the large double-doors. He was surprised by how little Hogwarts changed in fifty years. There were different faces, and different names, but the castle never changed. He wondered if Hogwarts looked the same during the time of the Founders. He wondered if their time travels would take them there . . . it was a possibility, after all.

Funnily enough, the man leading them to the Great Hall was Professor Dumbledore of 1938, or as Percy affectionately named him, P. Dumble. Even Dumbledore approved of this name, which Draco found strange. Had someone tried to him P. Drac, he'd be quite offended. P. Dumble rambled on about the history of Hogwarts and the Founders, the points system, and the houses. Draco thought he was a little bias toward Gryffindor, but he supposed Professor Snape hadn't been very unbias himself.

When Dumbledore led them into the Great Hall, Draco's mouth dropped open. The Great Hall had been _much_ fancier in the 30's then their original time. There were hundreds of floating white, yellow and blue lights wandering over the four tables, weaving and ducking to avoid the bats from the students and tossed projectiles. The same candles floated, but the wall were covered in elaborate paintings that seemed so realistic that it was as if he was looking into a passage way into a different era. The tables were glossy and new looking, covered in shining gold plates, goblets and utensils.

There was a slight buzz of energy in the air that made his step quicken and his own magic react. He felt as if his senses had stretched out, and he could feel the ancient energy emanating from the castle. He looked over and the Golden – he still thought this with a slight sneer – Trio, the Seven, Tom, Nico, Sirius, Dumbledore – Albus, he told himself, they couldn't call him Dumbledore forever, because they also couldn't call 1938 Dumbledore P. Dumble – and Severus. They looked as confused as he did, except for Tom who simply stared at the Great Hall in awe.

There were five other kids, one of them being Abraxas Malfoy and another Walburga Black. He noticed Sirius had already gotten in a heated debate with her about blood prejudice. Walburga tossed her shiny black hair and looked ahead stubbornly, her already hard brown eyes watching nothing but the Sorting Hat. The other three were kids Draco didn't recognize, but he figured they were important. One of them had tousled brown hair and gray eyes, so he figured it was Harry's grandfather Charlus Potter.

He was pulled out his thoughts when the Sorting Ceremony started.

"Azule, Theon!"

Theon sank down on the stool, exhausted despite his long sleep in the train. The past few weeks had worn him down – or was it months he had been going non-stop? Traveling through time could confuse a person. He was more than happy to have a place to stay before he had to go through another anomaly in time and fix another problem. He wouldn't know how long it would be before he got another chance like this, so he was going to use it while it lasted.

The hat sank on his head, not quite covering his eyes. He had grown quite a bit, but not as much as he thought he would have if he had had enough food. The hat started to file through his memories, and random flashes of different eras passed through his head.

He was in the Inca Empire, running from headhunters and struggling with a fever he had caught from the Spanish Conquistadors. Trees whipped by, scratching his arms and face, the wet jungle tangles pulling at his arms and legs. The twins were behind him, or was it yet another monster? It was hard to tell with the bloody fever . . .

Then he was resting up in a tall tree with Ivan and Aiden above and below him, keeping watch while he tried to sleep. Dinosaurs – and not friendly herbivores – wandered that area frequently, and he didn't want to become dino kibbles and bits. The moon shone through the pine needles, lighting up his skin and showing the cuts and the scars that were forming.

"_Such stress and pressure for young child,"_ the hat said. _"Do you want to be put in a more comforting house? I'm sure Hufflepuff would be perfect for –"_

"_I wouldn't be alive if I hadn't learned letting my guard down for a split second was a major no-no. So, I'd rather be put somewhere more active."_ Theon interrupted.

He hated being rude – he had met _way_ too many rude people in his travels – but he really wanted to get this over with. He had half a dozen potions he needed to brew, and he wanted to eat, and sleep, oh, and there was pranks. He wondered if he would have time for fun and pranks this time around. He had several ideas in mind – hey, what could he say? Son of Hermes had his priorities set, thank you very much. Although, he still couldn't get rid of that bad feeling he wasn't going to get a break.

"_Set and determined."_ The hat said matter-of-factly. _"Very well, then I guess it's – _GRYFFINDOR!"

Theon set the hat down, and aimed a tired smile at Dumbledore, who looked a little worried. Theon wondered if they could tell Professor Dumbledore about their secret. He wanted so badly to tell someone – someone other than a demigod, magician, or another time traveler – what he did for a full-time living.

He sat down at the Gryffindor table, took a few hasty bites of the chicken and rolls, and nodded off.

"Chase, Annabeth!"

Annabeth walked up stool and sat down. The hat fell over her eyes, blocking her vision so all she saw was blackness. She remembered when she was sorted last time, when they went to Hogwarts to learn what a wizard was and how to fight them. It was different this time, they were signing up at Wizard School for a place to stay, and to learn a little magic, her Athena side said, and figure out how to iron out their problem of Tom Riddle.

"_There's a lot of stuff going on in here, isn't there?" _The voice of the Sorting Hat said in her mind.

"_Yep. You've already sorted me, so get to it." _

"_Impatient, are you? Reminds me of good old Godric himself –"_

"_If you're going to sort every one of us by our tempers and patience level, we'll all be in Gryffindor." _Annabeth interrupted impatiently.

"_Very well. __Be wary of the people around you. Not all are what they seem.__ Better be, _RAVENCLAW!"

Annabeth got up and pulled the hat off her head, placing it back on the stool, frowning at the raggedy thing. Not all are as they seemed? Did that mean there was a spy, or a traitor? She was so tired of traitors from the last few wars. She tried to shake the thoughts out her head as she left and went down to join the other Ravenclaws. A girl and boy with white-blonde hair and pale blue eyes smiled dreamily at her, and she was reminded of Luna Lovegood.

"I'm Artemis," the girl said. "Artemis Lovegood."

"I'm Apollo Lovegood," the boy said. "Artemis's twin."

Annabeth laughed, and introduced herself, "Annabeth Chase."

"We know," Artemis said dreamily. "Professor Dumbledore called your name."

"What's so funny?" Apollo asked.

"Nothing, don't worry," Annabeth said with a smile. "You just remind me of a few people I know."

"Chase, Draco!"

Tom had to nudge Draco's side to get his attention. _Oh yeah,_ he thought. _My last name is Chase for now._

He sat down on the stool, and rubbed his hands on his trouser nervously. Nervous? Since when was he nervous? Admittingly, he had changed a lot since he had learned he was a half-blood – the demigod kind – and he had stayed for a summer at Camp Half-Blood. It was impossible not to loosen up there, and being an aristocrat was a place for the Aphrodite cabin. The Athena cabin toughened him up, and Clarisse herself had tried to stick his head in the toilet. He supposed the truth was that he was worried he had changed so much he wouldn't be in the same house.

Would he be fated to worry about being a called a dumb blonde, like Annabeth? Had Athena turned him into a nerd? Annabeth would stick him with her dagger for thoughts, but hey. He had his priorities.

The hat fell over his eyes, just like it had when he was eleven, only this time his hair was slicked back and he didn't have the same attitude. He hadn't cut his hair in some time – Camp Half-Blood often gave out free haircuts via lava climbing, or Clarisse's electric spear – and it was getting a little long for his liking. He was going to start looking like his father if he didn't do something soon.

"_If you don't want to sound like an Aphrodite spawn,"_ the hat said, _"then stop fretting about your hair."_

"_Oh, shut up, hat. Slytherin. Now." _

"_I don't know . . ." _

"_I will stomp you to pieces and feed you to hydra." _

"_It would take a lot of bravery to do that. Could you even take on a puppy hellhound?" _

Draco bristled angrily, his pride stinging deeply. Did the hat think he was coward? He had taken down two cyclopes on his way to Camp Half-Blood! And he had fought off Clarisse when she tried to use her matchmaking talents on him with the toilet! He had plenty of bravery, it was a trademark of a demigod. Was the hat implying he was bad demigod, or fighter? Or was it insinuating he didn't have the intelligence of an Athena child? He felt his blood boil – metaphorically speaking, of course – at the thought. How dare the bloody hat –

"GRYFFINDOR!"

There was a shocked silence where Draco suddenly realized what the hat had done. He face turned redder than it ever had before, and he shouted mentally, _"You stupid, horrid, mad, manipulative hat! I will burn you to ashes and then run you over with a __stampede of pegasus and__ –"_

The hat was pulled from his head, and he looked up into the twinkling eyes of Professor Dumbledore. _Oh no,_ he thought with despair. _Dumbledore is my new Head of House! _He sighed and walked off to the Gryffindors, who were completely unaware of his depression. _Typical Gryffindor_, he thought irritably. _Oh wait, I am a Gryffindor now! Just. Bloody. Great._

The others gaped openly at him, and he sneered back at them with his perfect Slytherin sneer. _So there,_ he shot mentally at the hat, even though it couldn't hear him. He looked at his fellow Gryffindors, who were pushing themselves around and acting like idiots. He wondered how long it was before he caught Gryffindoritus.

"Hello!" A cheerful voice said. He looked over to see a boy a year older than him with brick-red hair that was several shades darker than a normal Weasley and bright brown eyes. "I'm Than Weasley."

"Draco M – Chase."

"Draco Mchase? Interesting name!"

"Draco Manfred Chase. I got the –"

"Two letters mixed up," Than said with his ever bright smile. He was starting to remind him of a mix of the little kids in the Hermes cabin and Colin Creevey.

"Um. Yeah, that's it." He nearly groaned as the boy went on to start a conversation. The next few years were looking glum.

"di Angelo, Nico!"

Nico stepped out of line and sat on the stool, pulling the hat on his head in one fluid motion. He was set on one house: Slytherin. His brothers had been in Slytherin, he had been in Slytherin, and he knew he fit the sly and cunning of the house. Gryffindor was just too loud and too boisterous for him, and Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw were too fluffy and smart for him. Not he wasn't intelligent, but Ravenclaw just wasn't for him.

"_You've already got your facts sorted, have you?"_ The hat chuckled in his head, _"You're an easy one. __Just remember, forgiveness is sometimes the hardest the to do, and might not always be rewarding, but it is the best thing to do. Hard times are ahead, but as long as you follow the basic right from wrong insticts, you should do just fine.__ I'll have to remember to warn you brothers in the future not to wreak too much havoc . . . _SLYTHERIN!"

Nico joined the other snakes as the Slytherin table, glancing around with his head spinning with questions. One boy politely introduced himself as Orion Black, and Nico remembered this was Sirius's dad. That was just a little two mind-boggling, so he decided to just ignore that fact and introduced himself as well.

The hat was even more infuriating than it had been last time. Forgiveness not Nico's strong suit, in fact, holding grudges was hi fatal flaw. Forgiving the gods for sending his brothers away? Well, that might take a while. He hoped that wasn't part of saving the ultimate future of mankind, because if it was, then he wasn't off to a good start.

"Evans, Albus!"

Albus Dumbledore "Evans" walked to the stool and settled on it, pulling the hat over his head. He smiled pleasantly, noticing the haunted look on Professor Dumbledore's face when he looked into sparkling eyes of his younger self, stepped right out of a picture from the late 1800's. He had figured his younger – or should he think older? – self would eventually recognize him, but he already had a plan for that. It was quite a good one, too.

"_HOLY SALAZAR'S KNICKERS!" _

"_I don't believe Salazar __would be fond you talking about his knickers__,"_ Albus said amiably, laughing lightly at the hat's surprise.

"_D__id I __ever tell you when__ Salazar __thought__he__ was immune to being drunk?"_ The hat asked with a loud laugh.

"_I'm sure that would be a very interesting story, how did Salazar b__ecome –__"_

"_Now now, Albus, __keep__ your attention spand, or lack thereof, __it check__."_ The hat chided with an amused undertone. _"I believe this is a no-brainer. You companions would probably riot if I didn't – wait, what's this? Harry's a horcrux?" _

"_I would prefer you don't tell him that," _Albus said worriedly. _"If we succeed in our quest here with young Tom Riddle then he won't be a horcrux."_

"_How can you be so sure?" _The hat asked. _"You don't know the way time works." _

"_Do you know?" _Albus challenged, tapping into his youthful rebellion.

"_I'm afraid I don't, but what I do know __for sure is that you must be on the lookout this year. There is someone in this castle that should not be. I, being only a hat – albeit the smartest – don't know who this person is, but I sensed this person as soon as they walked in. And I warn you, this character did not seem to be nice at all." _

"_Do you know anymore? And do not tell the children this," _Albus said.

"_Keeping secrets, are we Albus? Very well. I believe it__ is __clear__ that you __now__ belong in –_ SLYTHERIN!"

"WHAT?!" The sounds of twelve people rang through the Great Hall.

"That's impossible!" Ron exploded.

"No way!"

"Really?"

"How could –"

"Students!" Professor Dumbledore held up his hands to quiet them. "The hat has made its decision."

Albus frowned at the hat, but he walked to the Slytherin table quietly. He could clearly hear the protests of Harry, Hermione, Ron and Sirius. Severus was quiet, and he knew what the moody Slytherin was thinking. With all of the secrets and half-truths Albus had told over the past several decades, it was no surprise his house had changed, but he was still disappointed to not be put in his old house.

Then there was the warning the hat gave. Who was this mysterious person? If the past – or future, depending on how one looked at it – would play into account, this person would be the Defense Agaist the Dark Arts teacher. But no, that wasn't right. Professor Merryweather taught that class, and with the exception of one, all of the other professors had been teaching for years.

Albus focused on the new professor, who taught charms. He was a small man, with wire glasses and graying hair wrapped around his head to give the illusion of having more of it. There was nothing threatening or mysterious about him, but Albus supposed that even the most innocent looking people, the ones one least expected, could turn out to be traitors. Look at Peter Pettigrew. No one thought that he would have betrayed James and Lily Potter, but he did.

The former Hogwarts Headmaster sat down at the Slytherin table, still watching the new professor cautiously. He attempted _legilim__e__ncy, _but the other man had strong mental barriers up. As soon as Albus started trying to get past them, the man began to scan the faces of the students. Albus broke of the _legilimency _and looked around his new table.

"Evans, Harry!"

Harry was pensive as he walked up the hat. In his first year, the hat had been set on him being in Slytherin. What if he was put in Slytherin? He was sure he was a Gryffindor. He sat down on the stool and let the had block out his vision, feeling as terrified as he had when he was eleven years old for the first time. He was sure he had proven himself as the ultimate Gryffindor. But what if the hat saw it differently again? What if –

"_No need to worry yourself," _the hat said. _"Remember, your own choices are taken into account."_

"_I know,"_ Harry replied hurriedly. _"And I want to be put in Gryffindor."_

"_Figured,"_ the hat grunted. _" You'd make an excellent Slytherin, I say." _

Harry sighed in exasperation. _"How would I make such an excellent Slytherin? I'm nothing like them!" _

"_I can't really say, Harry Potter, but I will tell you this. Keep your eyes out this year. Don't expect 'reforming' Tom Riddle is going to be your job here, because it isn't." _

"_What do you mean?" _

"GRYFFINDOR!"

"_No wait!_" The hat was pulled off his head, and the voice fell silent. Harry got up and rejoined the Gryffindor table, sitting next to Draco and Theon, who was just starting to stir from his light nap.

Draco looked depressed, with a boy called Than Weasley. Harry supposed Than was one of Ron's relatives. He wondered which one, because he had never heard of the Weasleys talk about a Than before. Maybe it was some far-off cousin or something. Harry would have to ask Ron later, when it was Ron's turn to be re-sorted. At least he knew for sure that Ron would go into Gryffindor. What was plus. He had been completely shocked when Draco went into Gryffindor, and then even more shocked when _Albus Dumbledore_ was sorted into Slytherin.

"Hey!" Than said with a grin. "What's your name? And welcome to Gryffindor! I'm in my third year. Lots of people say I'm kind of immature, but who are they to say anything?"

"Uh, yeah." Harry said. "I'm Harry P – Evans."

"Pevans? You guys sure have some weird names!" Than said. "Or was that another mistake? Draco here said Mchase on accident. Mixed his second and last name up or something."

"Oh, yeah, that's what I did." _What's a middle name that starts with 'P' that's not Peter?!_ "Percival," he blurted out. "Harry Percival Evans." HPE? He hoped Sirius didn't start calling him hippie.

"That's cool!" Than said brightly.

Now he understood why Draco looked so miserable.

"Evans, Severus!"

There were mutters like, "another Evans?" and "what is there, a hundred of them?" as Severus walked shoved the hat on his head with a sneer. The mutters turned to "Slytherin for sure" and "don't want to mess with that kid". Severus ignored them and focused on being sorted into the best house ever, Slytherin.

"_Someone is __a bit of grump," _the hat said teasingly. _"I don't even have to think about this one. I'm going to give the same warning that I gave Albus. There is someone here, someone who shouldn't be here, and he's – I'm sure he's a he, but you never know, he might be a 'her' – powerful. So watch out." _

"_Never a quiet moment,_" Severus drawled out in his mind. _"Why am I not surprised with the Potter boy and his companions being here?"_

"_Severus, word from the wise old hat that has been around since the founder's era? Give up on the 'I hate Potter business'. It would only make your job here a lot harder." _

"_Our job cannot possibly get any more difficult, I assure you." _Severus mumbled.

"_Yes, it can, and it will. Time travel is serious business, and there are laws to be upheld. Trust me, this is only the beginning. Don't tell Albus anything I said about laws either. It will only distract him and everyone else." _Before Severus could reply, the hat shouted out, "SLYTHERIN!"

Right before the hat was pulled off, it whispered, _"and only the bravest snake could do the job you have done. Good job, and let go of the past."_

Severus got up and sat next to Albus as the Slytherin table, aiming sneers at the other students that were so fierce that even the older kids shied away from him. He sat there, glaring at his plate in silent moodiness to hide his inner turmoil. Was it possible? Could he _actually_ forgive Sirius – and James and Lupin, even though they weren't there – for the prank that had nearly cost him his life? He thought about for a few seconds, but the answer was always the same: _nope, definitely not._

Some things never changed.

"Grace, Jason!"

Jason, as everyone before him, sat on the four-legged stool and waited for the hat to speak. _"If only all people could make up their minds as you did,_" the hat finally said. _"Some people waste their whole life away wondering where they belong. It is rare to find one who can let go of the responsibilities of the past and look into the future, especially one so young."_

"_I just knew,"_ Jason said humbly. _"It was Piper or Camp Jupiter, and I knew that I belonged with Piper in Camp Half-Blood. The Greek way just . . . suited me." _

"_I agree,"_ the hat said. _"So far, I have warned everyone before you. I __have__ special thing to warn you about, though. Your enemy with especially hate you. __If my assumptions are correct, this this enemy will have a personal vendetta against you, because of your father." _

"_Jupiter? And if you have a slight clue, why don't you tell us?" _Jason asked.

"_Why would I fill your head with things that I myself am not sure about? Don't worry. Albus and Severus will be on the lookout, and that Annabeth is the most brilliant girl I've come across since Rowena Ravenclaw herself." _

"_Yeah. She is a daughter of Athena after all." _Jason replied.

"_The children of Athena are blessed with incredible intelligence,"_ the hat acknowledged. _"Enough small talk. Heed my warning, and _GRYFFINDOR!"

Jason pulled the hat off and ran to sit at the red and gold table at the end of the hall. Draco, Harry and Theon looked at him with a kind of desperation, and when he saw Than he realized why. He was easily one of the most hyper kids Jason had ever come across. That was saying a lot, since he had seen Dakota in his Kool-Aid sugur rushes, which was, by the way, not a good situation to be in. Try sticking a dog in a roomful of balls and china plates and that's what you got with Dakota and sugar rushes.

Jason smiled at Than, "Hey. I'm Jason Grace."

"Than Weasley!" Than said loudly. "Nice to meet you! I suppose you didn't get _your_ last names mixed up with your second names?"

Jason glanced at Harry and Draco, and they mouthed, _long story._

"Um, no, I didn't. My last name is Grace."

"Grace is a nice sounding last name, but it sounds a little girlish." Than informed Jason. "But it's not the worst! I had a cousin in Costa Rica – yeah, way over there! – and _he_ had a last name that made . . ."

Jason sighed and reminded himself to pack Aspirin next time he went on a journey over fifty years in the past.

"Grace, Sirius!"

Sirius bounded to the stool and sat on it, pulling the hat over his eyes. _"So, buddy! Been a long time, hasn't it?"_

"_I've never sorted you before today, but I'm not looking forward to the next time I have to sort you." _The hat replied wearily. He must have been getting tired of all of the time travelers.

"_Well, I don't think you'll have a problem with sorting me. I'm pretty cut and –"_

"GRYFFINDOR!"

"You know, I could be insulted by how you cut my sentence off," Sirius informed the hat out loud.

"_Get over it,"_ the hat said. _"Oh and watch out for people that want to kill you. And do get thrown back in Azkaban." _

"_No duh."_

"_I'm being serious." _

"_No, I'm Sirius." _

"_That's not even funny." _

Sirius pulled the hat off his head, and went down to the Gryffindor table. That's when he met Than, and got the same headache treatment. He made a mental note not to add the kid – no offense, he was a good kid and all, but he was so hyper! – to his Marauders list. He also made a mental note to add 'look out for mysterious looking people' to his to-do list.

"Jackson, Perseus!"

Percy cringed when he heard his name, but to his surprise no one snickered like his name was a joke. He heard a few of the students mutter, "nice name", but it didn't sound sarcastic. Perhaps people in the 30's had a different taste for names. Then again, when people with names like "Bathilda" and "Walburga" complimented one about their name, that person might wonder if it was really a compliment.

The hat fell over his eyes – which it hadn't done when he was seventeen – and obscured his vision. He remembered when he when to Hogwarts, the hat had been divided between Gryffindor and Hufflepuff. He kind of hoped the hat put him in Gryffindor again, because Hufflepuff just sounded too . . . Hufflepuff. Hey! He had a reputation to think about.

"_What reputation? Being a seaweed brain? Then Hufflepuff is definitely the house for you."_ The hat said.

"_Aren't you supposed to be unbias?"_ Percy asked.

"_We all have our secret bias,"_ the hat replied.

"_Yeah, like Area is bias towards being a jerk, and Zeus is bias towards being high-and-mighty." _Percy said irritably.

"_Careful," _the hat warned. _"The gods aren't so thankful toward you in this time. You won't be able to get away with stuff like that." _

"_Yeah, yeah,"_ Percy muttered. _"Is this the part you give me some doomsaying advice and then break off at a vital piece of information, irritating the Hades out of me?" _

"_Pretty much," _the hat agreed.

"_You're evil."_ Percy said.

"_As you 21__st__ century people say, yep." _The hat didn't seem apologetic at all. _"But I'm afraid this is important. The castle has an infiltrator. You will need to be on your best look out, but be careful that Harry and his friends don't be too quick to judge people who are innocent." _

"_Be vigilant, check," _Percy ticked off of his mental check list, _"don't be paranoid. Half check." _

"_I'm serious," _the hat said.

"_No, actually Siri –"_

"GRYFFINDOR! _Don't even try that joke." _

"Jeez," Percy grumbled as he pulled the hat off and waved at Annabeth before running down to the Gryffindor table.

"Levesque, Hazel!"

Hazel cautiously walked to the stool and sat on it, willing herself not to make jewels pop up all over the place. At it was, she had already had a ten carat diamond appear under her foot. She had only barely scooped it up in time before Abraxas Malfoy had turned around. She couldn't imagine what would have happened if he got a hold of one of her cursed stones. Abraxas would have died, which meant Lucius would have never been born, and then Draco would not be born . . . she tried not to think about that.

Time travel was confusing enough without thinking of the 'what could be' part of it.

"_Another time traveler? You know what – I'm not even going to rehash the same thing over again. Watch your back, stranger danger, blah blah blah. Hm . . . plenty of bravery, lots of loyalty, quite intelligent and cunning . . . Pick a number between one and four." _

"_That's so overly obvious that it's not even funny," _Hazel said.

"_A farting weasel! That's something new."_ Obviously the hat was going through her memories._ "Well, I guess I'll shake things up a bit. Better be _HUFFLEPUFF!"

Hazel wasn't sure if that was a good house or not, but the people sitting at the yellow and black house seemed friendly and welcoming. She sat down with the other first years, and smiled nervously at a girl with caramel pig tails as she pocketed a ruby and emerald. She just hoped Frank somehow got sorted into Hufflepuff. He was brave though, so he'd probably go into Gryffindor.

"McLean, Hermione!"

Hermione crammed the hat on her head like how she had nearly six years before, in the future, if that made any sense at all and crossed her fingers. Gryffindor, Gryffindor, Gryffindor . . .

"_A__b__rilliant mind you have, Hermione." _The hat commented. _"Are you sure that's not one of a Ravenclaw?" _

"_I am quite sure, thank you very much," _Hermione replied primly.

"_I'm sure you love reading?" _

"_Oh yes! I was reading _Hogwarts, A History_ again on the way here. I just can't get over all of the facts they have about Hogwarts in that book! I swear new things are being added to it every year. It's ama –"_

"RAVENCLAW!"

"You Slytherin!" She hissed in outrage.

The hat said nothing as Professor Dumbledore took it off her head and nodded at her to go off to the Ravenclaw table. Hermione sat at the blue and bronze table with Annabeth, which brightened her a little, and introduced herself to Artemis and Apollo Lovegood. Hermione had never found names more fitting than those for the Lovegood twins.

"McLean, Piper!"

By now, the entire Great Hall was filled the whispers of revelation about how many twins were joining that year. Piper figured they'd better be glad there was only twin-in-name joining, and not twins like Fred and George Weasley, or Ivan and Aiden from their time. It would be _much_ louder in Hogwarts if there were. As it was, she was a little pensive on what Sirius was going to do to Jason. She didn't want to find out Sirius had turned Jason into a pranking, joking, Leo-clone.

"_You don't have to worry about Jason Grace," _the hat said soothingly. _"He's one of the most mature children of his age that I've met. Yes, even more mature than Dumbledore, although when Albus was young he wasn't exactly mature." _

"_Yeah,"_ Piper said heavily. _"So, Gryffindor, please?" _

"_What, are you opposed to Hufflepuff?" _

"_Do I even have to answer that question?" _

"_Very well. I have been warning the others, giving them bits of information that best fit them, and I think you can handle this one the best out of all of them. I ask you not to tell the other, though. It wouldn't do good for their mental health." _

"_What is it?" _Piper asked with a state of dreading.

"_I sorted two boys by the names of Nico and Hadrian Riddle nearly fifteen hundred years ago. However, those weren't their real names." _The hat said gravely. _"Their real names were hidden under years and years of suffering and pain, so deep that even I couldn't get it out. They reminded me of the Revelden boys that Nico di Angelo is worried about. His half-brothers." _

Piper swallowed. Two boys, with names like Nico and Hadrian Riddle, who were like Ivan and Aiden? There was only one problem, though. "_They were tortured?" _

"_Time travel can do that to a person," _the hat said.

"_Are you sure it was them?" _Piper asked.

"_I'm not sure at all. But it is an interesting coincidence, is it not?" _

Piper couldn't reply to that. She hoped it wasn't them, but what were the odds of twin boys with the names Nico and Hadrian Riddle showing up at Hogwarts? _"How were they so young?"_ she finally asked.

"_Hogwarts had different age requirements back then. Anyone could come to Hogwarts to learn magic." _

"_Oh." _

"_I believe it's time I sorted you. This is rapidly turning into the longest sorting in history." _The hat sighed in impatience. _"Hmm . . . there is a lot of bravery here. A lot of bravery . . . there is loyalty, but not to a fault, and intelligence, but not a Ravenclaw type. I think I know . . ._ GRYFFINDOR!"

Piper pulled the hat off with relief and joined Jason at the Gryffindor table, taking his hand under the table. They had decided it was just too weird to kiss an eleven year old, even if they knew it was them under the skin. They agreed to stick to holding hands until they were a few years older hoped the potion wore off or something. It could – after all, it was brewed for a mortal wizard, not a demigod.

"Hi! I'm Than Weasley!" A bright-eyed boy that looked even more hyper than Leo beamed across the table from her.

_Uh oh._

"Riddle, Tom!"

Tom broke out of the much-smaller line and sat on the stool with his heart in his mouth. Slytherin or Gryffindor? What about Ravenclaw? He'd kill the hat if it threw him in Hufflepuff. Why couldn't they have a Slytherdor, for the brave _and_ cunning? Or Ravytherdor? Smart, cunning, and brave. Except he could barely even _pronounce_ Ravytherdor. He could talk to snakes, he was a good liar, he could slither his way out of any situation.

Slytherin hands down, right? _But what if . . . _

"_You are one of the least decisive people I have ever met." _The hat said. It filed through his memories, looking over everything that had ever happened in Tom's life. _"You're a dark one. But what's this? Gaunt? I'm afraid there's only one place for a Gaunt,__but look here! Another one! The gods really are testing fate and balance." _

"_Gods? Gaunt? Dark one?"_ Tom echoed blankly.

"_If there were a Slytherdor, I'd definitely put you in it, but I think the house for is, _SLYTHERIN!"

Tom swallowed reflexively and pulled the hat off. He glanced back at the others, and at Sirius and Jason in Gryffindor, feeling a pang of longing. He had heard that Slytherin and Gryffindor had a major rivalry. Perhaps they wouldn't want to be around him now that he was a Slytherin. He tried not to think about it as he made his way down to the green and silver Slytherin table.

He inspected his newly colored tie, thinking that at least silver and green were nice colors. Nico, Albus and Severus sat on either side of him, and a Abraxas Malfoy, who had been sorted into Slytherin, sat across from him. Tom frowned at Abraxas, finding an uncanning resemblance between him and Draco. Were they, somehow, related? There was no denying the resemblance. They both had white-blonde hair, gray eyes, and pale skin. Their heights and physique were the same. It was almost creepy.

Albus smiled at Tom, which cheered him up a little. "Don't worry. The Slytherin kids aren't that bad."

Severus muttered, "if you can get over the 'kid' part of that sentence."

"Now, Severus," Albus said serenely. "Let's not be hasty to judge others, shall we?"

Tom shook his head, not too surprised that Albus sounded like an old man chastising a life-long friend.

He looked up as "Saures, Allan" was called to the hat. The slim redheaded boy sat down on the stool and waited for several seconds. He noticed a small frown form on Allan's face, before the hat bellowed, "SLYTHERIN!"

Tom noted mentally that Nico and Severus seemed surprised, but Allan didn't. Allan sat at the table with them, next to Abraxas on the opposite side of the table. He gave them a wry half-smile and cringed slightly as Abraxas started to talk his ear off about Hogwarts and its history. Who would have thought the quiet Malfoy was a know-it-all?

"Sparrow, Eris!"

Tom looked up in surprise. Katelle sat on the stool obediently for the first – and Tom was sure it would be the last – time ever. Her name was Eris? Then why did she always introduce herself as Katelle? Maybe she was lying about her name as well. Or perhaps she just –

"SLYTHERIN!"

_What the heck? No way! I am so dead!_ Tom thought incredulously. He was sure the overly aggressive girl would end up killing him sooner or later. He leaned more on the former.

Katelle huffed and pulled the hat off, slamming it down on the stool with an angry scowl. She stalked down the Slytherin table, aiming glares at whoever was brave enough to meet her eyes. Without thinking, Tom shoved Albus over to make room for the moody girl. Katelle accepted the offering as if she was a goddess and it was a sacrifice and sat down with a very unlady-like thud.

Tom was sort of afraid she bite his head off for asking, but he dared it. "Is your name Eris or Katelle?"

Her scowl deepened. "Eris Katelle Sparrow is my birth name. If you call me Eris I will live up to the name make you mince meat."

_Live up to the name?_ Eris . . . it sounded somewhat familiar, but he couldn't quite – oh! "Eris was the goddess of discord and strife, wasn't she?"

"Bingo!" Katelle replied, eying the feast like a hungry predator.

_Bingo? What is that?_

"What is Bingo?" Tom asked. When she opened her mouth, he cut her off with, "you know what? Never mind. I do not want to know."

Katelle snorted and reached for some of the food.

"You have to wait until after the beginning of the year speech," an older boy said.

Katelle rolled her eyes, pulling her hand away from the platter of apples. Then she pulled something shiny and silver from her boot and an apple from the side pocket of her pack and cut off a chuck. She popped the chunk in her mouth and grinned wolfishly. "Let that stop me from doing whatever the bloody hell I want to."

A girl who looked to be third or fourth year wrinkled her nose at Katelle's behavior. "You should never curse. Are you supposed to be a lady? Because all I see is a wild animal."

Katelle let out a harsh laugh. Somehow she made peeling an apple look threatening. "You haven't met the animals yet, Lady Luck." She bit into another piece of the apple. "I' ma's me loo' tame."

The girl huffed and tossed her hair over her shoulder. "My uncle deals with dragons and I've seen them before. I know _all_ about wild animals."

Katelle swallowed the bite, and a smirk twisted her lips. "Trust me. You haven't met wild animals until you've slept in a jungle full of them. Come back and talk to me after you've camped out with no food, no water, and no way of getting home."

"And you're telling me you have?" The girl snarled.

_I sense a Kat-fight,_ Tom thought with amusement.

Meanwhile "Valdez, Leo" had been sorted into Ravenclaw.

Katelle sighed, "if only prissy little girls like you could go through basic training. You'd see what a real fight is, that's for sure."

"Basic training?" Tom blurted out.

Katelle waved it away. "Inside joke."

Funny enough? He didn't even want to know.

"Weasley, Ron", was sorted into Gryffindor.

Tom was beginning to think all of the new orphan kids were either Gryffindor, or Ravenclaw. That was, until Frank went up and was sorted into Hufflepuff with Hazel. He looked down at his Slytherin tie and badge again with a sort of daze. The only new student that didn't seem fazed by anything was Katelle, who was still arguing back and forth with the fourth year girl. Allan was being . . . Allan. He was doing anything but sitting there and staring at his plate.

"I bet you've never faced real hardship," the fourth year said arrogantly.

"Uh huh," Katelle said. "So, do you have a name? I want to remember what click to avoid."

"Inanni Dolohov." The girl said proudly. "Pureblood."

"Inanni," Katelle mused. "I believe that's a Babylonian goddess? Psycho one, at that. You can call me Sparrow, so there."

"I notice you didn't say what your blood status," Inanni said. "You must be a dirty _mudblood_."

Katelle grinned, but it didn't reach her eyes. "As dirty as they come."

What was with that insanity? Tom found himself leaning away from her a little nervously. He really, really hoped she didn't somehow find out he got in her stuff.

He might end up on the 'missing persons' list.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: Sorry for the long wait, it's been hard to write lately. **

**First, ISIS is beheading people. Then there's an Ebola outbreak in Africa. _Then_ Obama makes it easier for people from Africa to get into America. Now there's a man with Ebola in America, who has been in contact with over 100 people, including four school children. This man landed in Virginia first, before going to Texas, and Virginia is _way_ too close to home for comfort. The family members are under quaratine, but they're showing restlessness and are protesting it, as if the lives of ever single person in America doesn't matter.**

**Do you guys know what Ebola is? Just curious, because it's not a good way to go, with a 90% mortality rate. 9 out of ten people die. I'm just super stressed about this and needed to talk about it. It's like all of my creative juices have dried up.**

**On a nicer subject, I got my hair dyed! I was so surprised - it looks just like Malfoy's color. Wasn't expecting it to be so pale, lol! I love it, though. **

**I'm going to try to update sooner next time, but don't hold me up to it. **


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter Six **

**When in Doubt, Prank Someone**

Nico woke to the sounds of snoring. For a moment he tensed, wondering where he was, before everything came back to him. Orphanage. Youth potion. Hogwarts. Tartarus. He dragged a hand over his eyes and looked around, his sight naturally enhanced in the darkness – a useful talent when you're sleeping in the dungeons.

Abraxas and Allan were in the beds on either side of him, and there were two other first year Slytherin boys in the beds nearest to the end of the dorm and nearest to the door to the dorm. He didn't know their names, only that they snored a lot and it irritated him. Abraxas slept like the dead, his mouth gaping open and his arm hanging over the side of the bad. His covers were twisted around his body and half-lay on the floor, making Nico wonder if he had gotten into a fight with his blankets and lost.

Those deadly blankets.

Allan was as blank in sleep as he was awake. His face was still, nothing showing. Not even a flicker of negative emotion from a bad dream. The last three were sights he had never hoped to see. Albus Dumbledore, Severus Snape, and Tom Riddle crashed on beds, looking ready for the Grim Reaper to take their souls to the Underworld. Translation to English? They slept even messier than Abraxas. Nico never would have thought the Dark Lord slept like someone from the Fields of Punishment.

Suddenly Tom sat up with a gasp, fumbling around in the dark before falling off his bed with a loud thud and banging up his elbow on the way down. He let out several creative words – all in ancient Greek, although Nico didn't think Tom knew that himself – and pushed his covers back on the bed. "Bloody nightmares and bloody monsters," he grumbled.

"Bad dream?" Nico asked.

Tom jumped at least a foot off the ground. "Uh, yes. Something like that."

"Sometimes dreams are important." Nico said, risking it a little. Tom was showing more and more inclinations of being a demigod. "They can tell us things."

Tom shook his head and sat on his bed, looking at his yew wand in his hands. "You people are so odd." He paused a few moments, before adding, "I hope this dream isn't telling me anything but I have a vivid imagination."

Nico shrugged. "Like I said, dreams are important. Sometimes they aren't your imagination."

"What do you know about Katelle?" Tom blurted, and then cringed as if he hadn't meant to say anything.

"She's violent," Nico muttered, "I really don't know much about her."

"Do you . . ." Tom swallowed and rubbed his hands on his blankets. "Do you know what's in her pack?"

"Notes, books, and some other stuff as far as I know." Nico said.

"If I tell you something, will you not tell anyone else?" Tom asked.

_Alert, alert, learning the dark lord's secrets._

"Uh, sure?"

"I looked in her pack," Tom shot out, as if he had been waiting to tell someone. "She had weird stuff in there, like a gun, but much more complicated, and these colorful pictures . . ."

_Great,_ Nico thought glumly. _Now _I _have to explain why Katelle had 21__st__ century technology in her backpack._

"Well?" Tom pressed. "I'm not making this up!"

"Uh," Nico scrambled for an answer. "She's a very good, um . . . painter! She's a good painter." _How did I get myself in Slytherin?_

Tom looked doubtful. "There were now brush strokes. And why would she paint a picture of a . . . a dead person?"

Nico blinked in surprise. "Dead person?"

"Yeah." Tom muttered, still examining his wand. "All over the place."

"That sounds . . . disturbing." Nico said, grimacing.

"Do you think she killed someone?" Tom asked in a rush.

"No," Nico said. It was true, there was no aura of death around her. He could sense things like that. "That doesn't meant she hasn't dead people, though."

_What am I saying?_ Nico thought. _With a personality like that, she's probably seen some pretty mess-up stuff._

Tom opened his mouth to speak, but the door to the dormitory banged open, flooding the room with light. Several half-awake boys moaned in protests, curling up under their covers desperately. The person who opened the door looked rather triumphant, and certainly not as tired as he had seemed the night before. It looked like a good night's sleep did wonders for sons of Hermes.

"Get up!" Theon said cheerfully. "We have a few things planned for the first day of school."

Nico groaned and pulled himself to his feet.

"And before you ask," Theon said, opening the door wider so the light covered even the kid in the back of the dorm, "no, you can't have five more minutes."

Five minutes later of Theon banging on the door saw Nico, Tom, Allan, Albus and Severus in the Slytherin dorms, fully awake and in rotten moods. Albus was the only one who seemed somewhat cheerful, with his fuzzy green bunny slippers and bright blue shirt under his Hogwarts robes. No amount of begging and pleading from Theon had stopped he former Headmaster from wearing at least _one_ article of clothes that was flamboyant.

"So why are we up at," Nico consulted his wrist watch quickly, "five thirty?"

Theon rolled his eyes. "Come on. We have _ages_ to rig everything! I've had a lot of time to think of good pranks, and I have the perfect one for breakfast."

Tom spun his wand between his fingers, before dropping it. He swooped down and picked it up, looking flustered. Looks like he wasn't born with the ability of twirling things in his fingers. "As long as we don't get caught."

"If we're going to prank," Nico said, "we'd might as well establish that we're prankers on the first day of school."

Theon clapped his hands excitedly. "That's the spirit! So how much of your charm books have you read?"

Nico sat at the Slytherin table, Tom and Severus on either side of him. The former was struggling to keep a straight face and later was doing it perfectly. In fact, his _I-am-not-pulling-a-prank_ face was so good, he looked like he sneering. Of course, he might have actually been sneering, because he was surrounded by brats under the age of thirty. Nico was beginning to wonder if he was allergic to kids.

"Bloody pansy of girls." Katelle threw herself down in a seat on the Slytherin table and began piling her plate with food. "They barely slept. A load of chickens, they are."

_She had a picture of a dead person,_ Tom's voice rang in his head. "So . . . you've never really talked about your parents. Or your mother at least."

Katelle glared at him, her blue eyes narrowed. "My mother's name was Lynx. Lynx Sparrow. It's kind of a tradition to name the first born after an animal."

Nico waited for her to go, but she didn't. "How'd she . . . you know."

"Predator attack." Katelle replied swiftly, stabbing her fork into a piece of sausage. "She got careless around the animals, and one of them attacked her. I was only nine at the time, but I've been on my own since then."

"You said Kronos tried to possess you, but you were alone since you were nine?" Nico asked. He was probably being rude, asking about her past to brazenly, but when it turned out someone had dead people in their pocket, then questions are natural.

Katelle rolled her eyes. "Well he found me, duh. Took him awhile, though."

Albus suddenly joined them, sitting besides Katelle. "Is it ready?"

Nico gave him a thumbs up.

"What's happen –" Katelle was cut off by a shout.

The banners, which previously showed a lion, a snake, a raven and a badger, now showed a worm, a chicken, a strange, blubbery looking blob with puff balls sticking from its sides, and an even bigger lion. The worm squirmed around helplessly, while the blob – which looked a lot like a blobfish that got into cotton balls – made noises that sounded remarkably like, "what _am_ I?" The chicken squawked comically, flapping its wings and sending feathers flying all over in the tapestry.

Katelle coughed, covering her mouth. He was sure she was laughing. "Oh. That's what."

Tom snickered, pointing at the Hufflepuff banner. "A . . . a whatever that is."

"How do you like it?!"

Nico and Katelle jumped, and Tom nearly fell off his seat. Theon appeared between them with a huge grin on his face. "Well? Did you like it?"

"How did you do that?" Tom asked incredulously.

Theon tossed one of the apples from a platter in the air and snatched it with inhuman speed. "It's a gift."

"That I want to learn," Tom muttered under his breath.

"Have you seen the charms teacher?" Theon suddenly asked. "What a creep!"

Tom moaned and set his head on the table. Nico frowned. "What's wrong?"

"He talks weird like you people, too!"

"I don't talk weird!" Theon exclaimed. "Do I talk weird? I never really thought about it. I wonder -"

"Wow!" Nico held up his hands. "Calm down."

Meanwhile, Nico noticed Katelle loading a piece of food on her fork and positioning the utensil like a catapult in her fingers. She squinted her eyes in concentration, and then let the fork go. The food flew through the air and landed on Inanni Dolohov's head, immediately tangling in her hair. Katelle dropped the fork and focused on her plate, her mouth twitching with suppressed humor.

Inanni let out a shriek and batted the food from her hair. She grimaced at the offending piece of food, and then glared at Katelle. "Sparrow! I know it was you!"

"_Captain,_" Katelle and Theon corrected at the same time.

"Captain Jack Sparrow," Katelle gloated, holding up her fork again to fire away another load.

"Don't you dare!" Inanni yelled shrilly.

Katelle let the food fly.

"Rosier!" Inanni shrieked, glaring at a boy across the table with a Prefect badge.

Rosier looked at them with little interest. "Stop whatever your doing."

Katelle loaded and fired another food cannon.

"Five points from Slytherin," Rosier said boredly.

"Boo-hoo," Katelle grumbled, and catapulted more food at Inanni. "So, what is so creepy about the charms professor?"

Theon shook his head. "I don't know. There's something off about him. I've gotten really good at telling when there's something dangerous nearby, and the charms professor sets off all of my spidey senses."

"Are you sure it's not just him?" Nico asked. "I mean," he glanced at Severus, "no offense, but Snape was always pretty creepy."

"Offense taken," Severus grumbled.

"No," Tom said suddenly. "I understand what Theon means. I get the feeling around the charms professor – he pulled me aside earlier, asking me about my parents – that I get around the monsters."

"Monsters?" Katelle perked up. "Where?"

"Go back to throwing food," Severus said snidely.

She made a face at him, and threw a roll at him. He sneered, but doused her in his pumpkin juice. She gasped in surprise, and retaliated with throwing her cup of water at him. Unfortunately, Severus ducked, so the cup sailed over his head and soaked a third year boy. The beefy boy turned around, glaring at her. Katelle grinned, which made her look part shark, and offered, "food fight?"

The boy responded by throwing his plate of food at her.

Fairly soon the Slytherin table dissolved into chaos. There was rolls, brisket, fruits and vegetables, drinks and other foods being hurtled. Professors yelled at them to stop, but it didn't seem to have much of an affect. Nico wasn't sure how it happened, but sooner than later the other tables joined in the food fight. So much for people in the '30s being classy and dignified.

Nico took the distraction to pull Albus, Severus, Percy and Harry aside. Katelle didn't seem to care about what they were doing as long as she had someone to hit over the head with food.

"What have you guys got so far?" Nico asked.

"No one seems suspicious so far," Percy said. "But Theon was insisting that there was something off with the charms professor . . . forgot his name. It was like Yoshi Ronin or something."

"Anosi Yohanin." Harry said. He pronounced the name like, Ahn-ozy Yo-hah-nin. "I don't know. He seemed pretty average to me. Maybe Theon's still jumpy from his experiences time traveling?"

"That's probably it," Katelle appeared next to them. She had an egg tangled in her short blonde hair, which looked quite disgusting. "Time travel can mess with your head."

"I don't feel messed up in my head," Percy said, frowning.

Nico, Severus, Katelle and Harry looked at him silently for a few seconds. Percy flung his arms in the air. "Okay, maybe you people think I'm nuts, but I'm not. Really."

"Lemon drop?" Albus asked, holding out a candy for them to eat.

Nico didn't know why, but it was so hilarious he started laughing. Percy and Harry joined in, while Severus rolled his eyes and Katelle smirked behind her hand.

When the professors finally got the students under control, and took away as many points as they could, even though classes hadn't even started yet. After they settled back down in their respective houses, Professor Dippet walked up the podium – which now had a soapbox under it, thanks to Theon. No one asked how he did it. Dippet seemed amused by it, though the charms professor had wrinkled his nose at it. Theon was probably sensing Professor Yohanin's lack of humor when he thought there was something off about him.

"Welcome to Hogwarts, new students!" Dippet announced. "And welcome back, to our older students. I hope this new year will go as smoothly as the last few have."

Over and the Gryffindor table, Nico could see Ron and Percy elbowing Harry, and Hermione shaking her head with a slight smile.

"I am pleased to introduce you to your new charms professor," Dippet motioned to the Asian-looking man, "Anosi Yohanin."

Tom snickered to Nico's right. "A nosy you hand in."

Katelle let out a short laugh. "I don't know how you came up with that so fast."

"I was sorted into Slytherin for a reason," Tom said with a smirk.

"Slytherin is the house of cunning and ambition," Allan said, ever the damper. "Not humor and wit."

"Allan?" Katelle said curtly.

"Katelle?"

"Shut up."

"Kallan," Theon popped beside them. "I totally ship it."

"Go back to your table!" Nico yelped a few octaves higher than he meant. He lowered his voice and hissed – not in parseltongue, duh – "and stop with the fast thing! You're going to attract attention."

Theon kicked his feet on the Slytherin table and grinned. "Do I seem to care about attention?"

"Theon," Nico growled.

"Okay, okay!" The first-should-be-second year darted – literally – to his table.

On the other side of the Great Hall, Harry and Percy jumped as Theon appeared between them, grinning impishly.

Nico shook his head. "That kid's going to kill me one of these days."

"Coming from the son of Hades?" Katelle said through the side of her mouth. "That's pretty sad."

" . . . and remind the children that the Forbidden Forest is off limits." Dippet said. "We don't want anymore incidents of children being mauled!"

He said it so jovially that Nico could almost get over the fact he was talking about children being mauled. Almost. He looked around at the other students, who didn't seem surprised by what Dippet said. He poked a second year who looked like he might talk under the pressure of Nico's Stare of Death. "What happened with the mauling?"

The second year shrugged. "It happened in my first year. Students who went into the Forbidden Forest came out," he gulped nervously, "either in shock, traumatized, or . . . or weren't found alive."

"How were they found?" Katelle asked, overhearing the boy's proclamation.

"Some were never found," the boy said. "Others . . . it was like they were shredded by a cat. A very big one. Look, I don't want to talk about it."

"That's fine," Katelle said. "We're new, and we just wanted to know."

"If you want to know more, you should ask Inanni," the boy said. "She was one of the survivors."

Katelle froze, and turned predator eyes on Inanni. She leaned back, pressing her palms on the edge of her seat. "So, the prim Slytherin queen has seen death and survived. That's surprising."

When Nico was sure the boy wasn't listening to them, he asked Katelle, "what do you think about that?"

She pursed her lips, examining her silver knife. "I think it means we need to keep our guards up. It means there's an unstable section of time and dimension somewhere in the Forbidden Forest, and that monsters came through last year, killing a few students and injuring more."

"A giant cat?" Nico asked. "Nemean lion?"

Katelle shook her head, slipping her knife back in her book. "It could be anything, from a Saber Toothed Tiger to a mythological monster. There's no way to tell." She paused, glaring at Inanni and muttered, "unless . . ."

"Unless what?" Nico asked impatiently.

"The Dolohovs were known for extensive knowledge on Unforgivable Curses, yes?" She asked, still watching Inanni.

"I think so? You'd have to ask Dumble – Albus if he knows," he twisted around so he could watch her face fully. "What are you thinking?"

Katelle rested her elbows on the table. She looked a lot like a _velociraptor_, about to surge for the kill. "I think we might have someone who knows something about the incursion monster."

"Incursion?" Nico mumbled under his breath. "What in the name of the Styx does that mean?"

"'An invasion or attack, especially a sudden or brief one'," Katelle quoted the dictionary definition from memory. "A fitting word for the situation."

Severus managed to extract himself from an excruciatingly painful conversation about clothes with Albus and Abraxas, and leaned over to them to ask, "what is the situation _now_?"

"We found out that there has been incursions," Nico said. He liked the sound of the word 'incursion'. It made him sound smart.

"What is the incursion?" Severus asked, blowing a strand of black hair from his eyes.

At least, he felt smart until he found out the person he was talking to already knew what the word meant. Nico tried not to glowered to much at the former Potions Master. Speaking of which, Nico couldn't wait to see Severus in the potions class. He was going to stun the whole class and take over before Slughorn could raise a bushy eyebrow. He might even be the youngest Potions Master ever.

"A monster," Katelle said. "Something that shreds."

Nico cringed. How could she say it so carelessly? He nudged her, "try to be a little more tactful."

"Tact isn't my forte," Katelle snapped.

_All over the place,_ Tom's voice echoed in his head again. Was he lying? He was the dark lord in making, so it wouldn't surprise Nico if he was lying.

"Classes are starting," Theon popped over again. "Not sure if you noticed."

Nico hadn't. Students had started to leave the Great Hall, heading down different halls. Katelle pulled out a wrinkled parchment, and her eyes lit up. "Well, we have Professor You Hand In."

"What way to start – you know what? I'm not going to finish that sentence." Nico stood up, and he noticed Katelle throwing a few extra apples in her pack. "What are you going to do? Eat apples all day?"

"Something like that."

After getting turned around so many times Nico lost count, and realizing that Tom's didactic memory wasn't completely infallible, the two boys finally made it to their Charms class. Since they were Slytherin, they had class with the Gryffindors, which meant new students (cough, Percy and Jason, cough) got lost with them as well. Nico had never been so glad to see a plain-looking wooden door with _Charms_ written on it in bold script.

They stumbled in, quickly finding seats and interrupting Professor Yohanin mid-lecture. The small Asian man frowned at them. "I see you have decided to join us."

"I'm sorry, Professor," Tom said smoothly. "We got turned around on the way here – faulty directions, I think."

Nico noticed Tom aim a glare at him, and he shrugged like, _what?_

Professor Yohanin curled his upper lip. "Five points from each of you."

Harry's face turned red in his seat in the back, and Nico was half-afraid that the short-tempered Gryffindor would jump out and demand justice from Professor Yohanin. Nico made it to his seat without being the cause of a war, and scanned the room. Katelle, cutting off chunks of apple with a wicked-looking serrated blade. No one noticed anything odd there. Percy clicking Riptide on and off sword form. Again, nothing strange to be seen there. Jason, occasionally zapping people. That's normal.

Theon, who was sitting at the desk to Nico's left, whispered, "watch this." He darted out to the Professor's chair, and then ran back, so fast no one even noticed him. He clamped his hand down on several papers that flew into the air from the wind currents of him running, fighting to keep his really, really bad poker face in tact. Half of Nico was tempted to tell him to just let it go and laugh away. The other part was tempted to nudge him with his wand to see if Theon actually exploded.

Professor Yohanin walked closer to his chair, and Theon's face lit up with excitement. Then the professor walked away again and Theon visibly deflated.

"You're so obvious you're going to give yourself away," Nico whispered.

"He needs to just – sit – down!" Theon hissed back.

"Is there something you wish to say, Mr Azule?" Professor Yohanin asked. "Or is this class not interesting enough for you?"

Nico cringed. Words couldn't express how much he _hated_ it when professors did that. Seriously? Did they have to be so loud and condemning? If only he could call a few skeletons, just a few really angry, bloodthirsty skeletons from Hades to spice Professor Yohanin's life up . . . it would be priceless to see. He noticed a small skull on the professor's desk. Possibility of a dead skull coming to life miraculously? Chances just went up 99.9 percent.

"Sorry, sir," Theon said, his mouth twitching around the words. "I was just wondering how you could walk back and forth so much without getting tired. I now I'd be dropping by now!"

Yohanin sneered. "Children just aren't what they used to be."

Theon's face stilled a little, and Nico could tell the son of Hermes' liking for Yohanin was rapidly dwindling. Theon grinned. "Yeah, well. We much more interesting things to do rather than till dirt. Like learn! So why do you go back to teaching us, yes? That's you job, I heard."

"I don't know," Katelle called from her seat. "I thought his job was being blatantly rude to students. Verbally abusive, even. Things like that could make you lose your job."

Nico caught on to what they were doing. "I'm sure he's not being rude, though. No need to complain to Headmaster Dippet about any of this."

"Certainly not," Tom snickered. "Although I heard abuse is something hard to spot, and needs to be immediately taken care of before the students are taken advantage of."

Professor Yohanin looked affronted. He scowled and went to sit in his chair and –

"YAHH!"

Theon made a strangled choking sound, snorting and clapping his hand over his mouth, shaking with suppressed laughter. Percy, Jason and Harry laughed openly, and Tom smirked appreciatively. Nico laughed at Yohanin's expression, the utter shock and humiliation. He sprang from the chair and landed half-way across the classroom, as far away from his chair as possible. Then a slice of an apple struck the back of his head. Nico looked at Katelle, who was scribbling on her parchment with her quill innocently.

"Who," the professor snarled, "did that?"

"No one," Theon forced out. His voice, trembling with laughter, was a dead giveaway.

"Yeah," Percy suddenly blurted. "It was nobody. Totally nobody's work. Seems like him to do that."

Katelle threw him a questioning glance, and he mouthed, _inside joke._

"Mr Azule, you're rather quiet for a chance." Yohanin said accusingly.

"Am I?" Theon asked. He coughed and blinked his eyes clear. "I didn't notice."

"If someone doesn't confess," Yohanin threatened, "then I will take away ten points per person in this room."

"There's not enough points in Slytherin and Gryffindor combined to do that yet," Katelle said distractedly.

Yohanin looked like he wanted to kill the first years, but he straightened his shirt and pulled out his wand. "Very well. Let us move on." Clearly he didn't want to move on. "The first spell we will go on is a simple sliding spell. _Yeprancedis_," he aimed his wand at a box, which slid across his desk. "Repeat after me, _yeprancedis._"

Theon had dissolved into a coughing fit. When he stopped he aimed his wand at the small pebble on his desk and said in a watery voice, "yeh prank-a dis." Nothing happened to the pebble, but Theon started to laugh again.

Nico felt his mouth twitched with amusement. "Are you okay?"

"Totally fine," Theon said. "It's just, of all spells, ye prank-a dis."

Tom leaned across his desk, "how did you charm the banners to do that thing with the animals?"

Theon spun his wand through his fingers. "I'm good at pranking things." He dropped his wand.

"But not good at doing wand tricks," Tom said with a slight smile.

"There's a trade-off in everything," Theon said importantly.

Ron bent over his desk from behind them and whispered, "you sound like Percy – my brother – when you do that."

Theon wrinkled his nose. "That's _not_ funny."

The rest of the class went by smoothly enough, except Yohanin had to eventually change the spell they practiced to _Wingardium Leviosa,_ because too many students were snickering as they said the spell. Nico found magic didn't agree with him, and he was afraid he might have lost his eyebrows when the pebble spontaneously combusted. Katelle seemed to find it amusing to say the spell, and then flick the rock into the air with her knife.

Percy somehow, Nico couldn't figure it out how for the life of him, made a jet of water flow from his wand when he tried to levitate his pebble. Suffice to say, no professor had ever been happier than Yohanin when the class was over, and the students left for their next class. As soon as Yohanin announced the class was over, Nico tossed his wand in his bag and jumped up to leave in one movement.

He walked down the halls by himself, lost in thought. He was still worried about what Tom said about Katelle. Mostly, he worried because he agreed with Tom. There was something off about her and her friend, Allan. Besides for the fact Allan showed literally no emotion, he had showed up out of no where, and had pretty much refused to explain how he got into 1938. Another thing was, who was Katelle's mother? She was very vague about her past. Perhaps she didn't want to get into it, but it only made Nico even more curious.

Nico thought his past was messed up. His mother had been killed by Zeus, and he and his sister were forced to drink from the Lethe. It didn't get more messed up than that, right? He wasn't so sure now. Being the son of Hades, he could sense death. It was one of his talents. He sensed death around Katelle, but not in the way he might sense murder. She had seen death, but hadn't caused it. He didn't think she had. Crazy as she was, she just didn't strike him as that kind of person.

He was so lost in thought, he didn't even notice when Tom and Severus caught up with him. Tom waved his hand in front of Nico's face, which broke him out of his train of thought. Tom raised an eyebrow. "Is there something on your mind?"

_No, you think?_ Nico thought irritably. Out load, he said, "I was thinking about pictures."

"I told Severus," Tom confessed. "You can say anything you've figured out."

Nico glared at the demigod-who-hadn't-been-claimed-yet. "You can't go around telling everyone that."

"I only told Severus." Tom said. "We can trust him."

"We can trust everyone," Nico insisted. "Even Katelle and Allan, even if they are a little strange."

"She had a –"

"I know, I know," Nico said impatiently. "I have an idea for that as well. I might sound rude, but I'd really want to see this picture before I go thinking she's a psycho."

"What's a psycho," Tom mumbled. He shook his head and said, "I don't want to go back in that bag. It's disturbing."

Severus pulled his cloak around his shoulders. "If you want us to believe you then you have to prove it to us, we will not, until then, assume that there is actually a photo of a dead person."

_Typical Snape,_ Nico thought. "We're not ganging up on you or anything, but we want to see this for ourselves. We can even distract Katelle for you."

"Did you hear what they said last night?" Tom asked. "There's protective spells over the girl's staircase!"

"You're always bragging about your immense intellect," Severus drawled. "And here is your chance to prove you are as intelligent as you say."

Tom teetered back and forth between saying yes and no, and finally blurted, "fine! Alright, I'll get the picture. I'll get her journal, too. She's got some interesting stuff in there."

"Deal," Nico said, holding out his hand, which Tom shook. Tom looked a little shaken after he shook Nico's hand. He didn't blame him, though. Hades was infamous for his impossible deals and swears that left people either dead, or in bad shape. Tom might not have known about he gods yet, but he definitely sensed that something was off about that 'deal'. Nico supposed that it was another talent of Hades: making unbreakable deals.

They survived through Transfiguration with a slightly looney Dumbledore (Nico was _sure_ Lemon drops didn't help magical talents, but Albus disagreed), and then went to the Great Hall for lunch. There wasn't as many students, since some of them were hanging around the library, or taking their lunch time to wander the grounds freely. Percy and Jason piled their plates full of food and dropped them on the Slytherin table with Nico, Tom, Severus and Albus. Katelle sat across from them and picked at her food, clearly uninterested.

Nico suddenly as if his own appetite had fled him. He had to _distract_ Katelle Sparrow. What had he been thinking when he made that deal? He must have a death wish, which was depressing considering who his dad was. He glanced at Tom, who looked a little green. That cheered him up a bit, although he had no idea why.

He muttered to Tom, "your up during dinner. I'll keep her busy."

Tom looked at his plate with something along the lines of depression. "I want 'He died trying valiantly' on my gravestone."

Nico gave a short laugh. "Okay. Just get the picture."

* * *

><p><strong>AN: Okay, so this is starting to feel a lot like a murder mystery to me. It's not! Sorry if there aren't as many pranks. There will be more in the future, but more centered with Sirius, Nico and Leo. And maybe Jason. Big stuff is coming up, my precious. Big stuff, little Hobbitses. Precious says so. Smeagol swears on the precious. Excuse my LotR fangirling for a second there. **

**Did I say somewhere in my previous story about Tom Riddle's ancestry (besides for Salazar Slytherin, duh, talking gods here)? Someone - sorry for my laziness, someone, take no offense please - said something about that. Where is it? I really hate it when there's inconsistancies. Did anyone notice that in the Mark of Athena, the evil consultant of Piper's dad was Jessica, but in the Lost Hero, her name was Jane? The name was changed! Or am I missing something?**

**I'm going to have absolutely no excuse not to update for a few days now. I spranged my knee cap (OUCH #U&*#%*&#!) and it hurts like heck. I tripped on my shoe laces, because they're about 5 FEET long, double knotted. I will find the designer of those shoes and sue them. Now I'm on crutches (I've been making non-stop jokes about Horcrutches now) and I really don't like them. So I get to sit a lot (crying) and do nothing. Expect more updates! Unless I hit a writer's block. **

**If there's anything that's bothering you, review it. I'm writing this for your entertainment as much as mine, so I'd like to fix anything (unless it's grammar. Please, no grammar nazis. Please. Save me from the grammar nazis! I'm way to hyper for 1 am) that's wrong. So yeah. Review! I live and breathe reviews. They're what gives me motivation! **

**So I promise on my Horcrutches if I get reviews I'll update faster. **


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter Seven**

**The Story of ADAM and Loaded Guns**

Sirius glanced down at his wrist-watch (stolen, tried and true from their original time) and frowned. He figure they had about five minutes before the daughter of Kronos realized what they were doing and tried to kill them. Or maybe she'd torture them first. Hang them upside down from the ceiling and let the blood rush to their head. Or maybe she would tie them to a wall, facing another wall, and make them listen to commercial singing non-stop.

_Nation Wide is on your side!_

He shuddered. Now he was getting morbid.

Katelle, Nico and Theon were crouched at either side of him, each of them looking down into the room with their target. Their target, who, hopefully, was going to soon be leaving his office to teacher the higher level charms classes, giving them plenty of time to tamper with a few things. They were going to do some professional high-level "maintenance" on Professor Yohanin's office. They were sure the result would make almost everyone's lives significantly happier.

"Almost" being the key word there. Sirius had no doubt that if Yohanin ever found out did this to him, he would knock them out of this time into the next century. No pun intended, of course, although Sirius thought it would be a hilarious inside joke.

They were all on the rafters in the ceiling, watching Yohanin sign paperwork. What he had to read on the first day of school, none of them knew, but whatever it was seemed important, because a few times he would slam the desk and pace around his office. If only one of the papers said something so bad he had to go for a walk about the castle . . . So far, that didn't seem to be happening. All he did was throw a few things and stir up dust.

Stir up.

That reminded Sirius. The animagus potions needed to stirred if he didn't want them to combust into flames, or change them into weird combinations of animals, or poison them, or – well, it wouldn't be good for their health if something went wrong. He had taken Ivan and Aiden's notes for potions before they left for 1938, and for the life of him he couldn't figure out how two third year students managed to make such complicated potions.

Some of the stuff they had in their notes could kill a person if it was done even slightly wrong. Sirius might have been one to take risks, but even he wouldn't ever use one of the potions unless Snivellous – as annoying as the Potions Master was, he was good at what he did – made it himself. And if anyone ever told Severus that, Sirius would have to personally kill them. He might have been reduced to an eleven year old, but he did have his pride to think about.

The animagus potions needed to be redone because, since the others were born as animagus like him, they had lost the magic when they were de-aged.

"When's he going to just leave?" Sirius moaned in the smallest whisper.

"_Shh,_" Theon whispered back. "We don't want him to know we're here!"

"Duh," Katelle muttered.

"Oh shut up," Theon grumbled.

"You talked first." Katelle shot back.

Yohanin flung some paperwork down on his desk and pushed his chair back, standing up and starting towards the door. Katelle, Theon and Nico, who were really getting immersed in their whispered argument, didn't notice.

"Um, guys," Sirius said.

"I did not!" Theon insisted. "Sirius did!"

"Guys –"

"I didn't hear him say anything," Katelle said stubbornly.

"Hey, You Hand In is –"

"Well, he did." Theon snapped.

"I'm tal –"

"No he –"

"Would you all just _shut up_?" Nico interrupted Katelle and Sirius at the same time.

Sirius did his best to look like a pathetic puppy dog – something he did quite well – and pointed down at the office. "But, he left."

Theon finally noticed the office was deserted and gasped. "Here's our chance!"

Sirius awkwardly jumped down, nearly twisted his ankle, and grinned like he meant to do that. Nico simply dissolved into the shadows and reappeared on the ground. Theon darted to the office floor, sending papers and parchment flying into the air, and Katelle swung gracefully from the rafters and landed on her feet, and the tips of her fingers. She was as silent and lithe as the animal she was named after.

Sirius could definitely see her being the predator of his nightmares, tying him up and making him listen to singing commercials. Totally. He know understood the "transfixed by the eyes of the predator" saying. She had that look down-pat. He almost felt back for their enemies when she went for the kill. Although, he still couldn't wait to see her beat someone up. Like, say, oh he didn't know . . . Snivellous, perhaps? Just a suggestion.

There was a goblet of clear liquid, which did _not_ smell like water, on Yohanin's desk. It was bare and open to attack from wandering prankers, just asking to be targeted. Theon pulled out a vial of a pale purple potion and poured it into the drink. The potion swirled around the drink for a few seconds, turning rainbow and shining incandescently on the surface of the drink before matching the color of the drink. Clear as a crystal.

Sirius had to admire Theon's potion work.

"Now what?" Sirius asked in a hushed voice.

"Now we wait until dinner," Theon said with relish. "The potion has a delayed effect, so we can view it at dinner tonight."

"What does this do?" Nico asked.

Theon rubbed his hands together, grinning with fiendish that rivaled Katelle when she went in for the attack. "I guess you guys will find out at dinner."

"That's not fair!" Sirius whined.

"I really don't care if you thi –"

"Sh!" Katelle hissed sharply. She held up her hand, and crept toward the door of the office slowly. She rested her ear on the edge of the door, near the wall. She tensed, and then pulled away from the door abruptly, running for the back of the room. "Quick! He's coming back!"

She leapt on the wall – before that second, Sirius hadn't though it possible to use cracks in the walls as handholds – and swung herself back onto the rafters in one fluid motion. She knelt on the rafters, motioning for them to follow with her hands impatiently. She instructed them, "hook your fingers in the cracks, and push yourself back toward me as hard as you can."

Sirius jumped at the wall, scrabbled at the wall, but fell back roughly. Why hadn't they thought of an escape plan? He repeated his action, and this time his fingers caught the handholds. The stone wall cut into his fingers, but he managed to push himself back toward the rafters – or at least he hoped he did. A hand caught his upper arm and hauled him on the rafters, so he assumed he aimed right.

Nico shadow-traveled up, and Theon somehow ran up the wall and jumped on the rafters using his incredible speed. None of them asked how he did it.

The door open just as they situated themselves in the shadows, dust billowing around in the room, and a stray paper falling from the table. Professor Yohanin walked in, accompanied by a woman with dark brown hair pulled into a twisted bun like a bee's hive, blue eyes and pale skin. She wore light make up, and was dressed in mortal business attire: a dark blue blazer jacket, a white blouse, and a pin-striped skirt that matched her jacket.

Yohanin sat in his seat, glaring at the woman with acid that rivaled how he looked at the students, and took a deep swig from his goblet.

Theon pumped his fist with a silent cheer.

The woman pursed her lips and said curtly, "Inosi. You said you had the results here?"

"Ah, yes," Yohanin searched around his desk, but came up with nothing. "Well, it was here. Must have gotten mixed up in the transfer. Probably still at the Owl Tower."

The woman's face became very cold. "You told me you had it. You said it was here. I need the results."

"Calm down, Christine," Yohanin said with a patronizing smirk. "As I said, it was merely mixed up in the mailing process."

"I can't believe you trust those . . . owls," Sirius got the feeling she wanted to say something else, but had to stay professional. "You're asking for security issues. We wouldn't want to Minister to fear the procession of this operation, now would we?"

Sirius wasn't a politician, but he was fairly sure 'Christine' was threatening Yohanin. Said professor suddenly pulled something from his desk drawer. "Ah! Here we have it. Addressed to a Christine Willison, I believe."

"Give it to me." Christine Willison said sharply.

Yohanin had a slight smirk on his face as he turned the package in his hand toward her. Willison snatched from him, and turned her head, narrowing her eyes. "Be careful where you step, Yohanin. You might break the wrong thing."

Yohanin's smirk fell, replaced by a look of irritation. "You got the results. What else could Adam want?"

Katelle suddenly gave a sharp intake of breath. Sirius glanced at her, and she mouthed, _Adam __as in an__ acronym. A-D-A-M._

"ADAM wants the best research possible for the security of the U.K, of course," Willison said smoothly.

Meanwhile, Katelle looked slightly sick as she watched the procession below. She suddenly reached for her back, and then froze. "My bag," she breathed in the faintest whisper. "I need it."

"We can't leave now," Theon answered in the same tone.

Sirius felt a stab of panic, had they succeeded in distracting Katelle long enough? He didn't know what Tom was taking, but he knew that Nico did _not_ want Katelle to know. He supposed to anything with her stuff would be asking for pain and misery. Katelle was scanning the room to look for ways to escape without being caught. That was impossible, though. There was no way that even someone like Katelle could get out of the office without being spotted . . . Right?

Katelle pulled something from a pocket in the inside of her jacket, and flicked it. It snapped open quietly and locked into a crooked stick that looked a lot like the wands the Egyptian magicians had. It looked like a boomerang. Perhaps she would throw it, and it would knock both of the adults unconscious at the same time. Somehow Sirius thought that wouldn't work. He had never used a boomerang before, and he doubted if they could even return to thrower.

The determined daughter of Kronos edged farther along the rafters, closer and closer to the door. She raised the boomerang, and threw it swiftly. The boomerang sailed through the air, sweeping up papers and sending a few books falling off of Yohanin's desk. Willison and Yohanin both looked up at where the papers had been knocked over, which was in the opposite direction of the only exit. Sirius suddenly understood what Katelle was doing.

While Willison and Yohanin were distracted, Katelle dropped from the rafters and crouched behind a bookshelf, hidden in the shadows. The boomerang returned to her hand, and she quickly collapsed it, slipping it back into her leather jacket. Then she pulled out her silver knife, balanced a small pebble on it, and catapulted it into a pile of papers in the corner of the room. The papers plumed into the air as if something had ran through it.

Yohanin pulled a shiny black object from his robes, and slid his had over the top of it swiftly. It made a clicking sound, and Sirius realized what it was. Yohanin had a handgun, and didn't look like it belonged in the 1930's. If Katelle cared about his gun, she didn't show it. She threw open the door and dove out, rolling to break the fall and darted around a corner, out of sight. Sirius felt his mouth drop open in shock.

So that was how someone got out of a small room with one exit, and two adults watching vigilantly.

"Okay," Theon whispered with a soft laugh, "that was pretty cool."

Nico, on the other hand, looked ashen. "Oh gods. I hope Tom's out of the girl's dorm already."

"Tom's in the girls dorm?" Theon asked in surprise.

"How did he do it?" Sirius demanded. Priorities, Sirius had many of them.

"Don't ask." Nico muttered. "Just don't ask."

Tom looked up at the stairs of the girl's dormitories. His yew wand was in his hand, but for some reason that didn't give him much comfort. He had several things going through his head that made him hesitate at the bottom of the stairs. What was the protective enchantments around the girl's dormitories? What would happen if Nico and Severus failed to keep Katelle busy long enough for him to nab her pictures?

He didn't have a lot faith in Nico's plan. It wasn't that he doubted Nico's intelligence, it just that he . . . doubted Nico's intelligence. Fine, the truth was out.

He waved his wand, muttering a spell to scan for enchantments. He nearly gave up right then and there when he found the plethora of enchantments, incantations, and hexes of the girl's staircase. Luckily, most of them were in the stairs themselves. He figured that if he took more than three steps up, the stairs would turn into a slide and send him tumbling back into the common room. He knew for a fact he wouldn't be able to jump the rest of the way up.

Or at least, a normal wizard wouldn't be able to make the jump. Tom had discovered many years ago that he had a talent with wind currents. Once, he had been pushed out of the top window of the orphanage by a mean kid that was few years older than him. Tom had been sure he was going die, but time had seemed to slow down and he had settled to the ground without breaking one bone. The air had seemed to carry him on the way down.

Now he hoped that he could do it again. He had to get to top of the girl's staircase without dying, as opposed to falling without dying. There really wasn't much of a difference, now that he thought about it. Only that this time he had a girl who could kill him in a thousand ways on his tail. If he looked at it like that, then he was in an even tougher situation.

He took a few steps up the stairs, breathing deeply in an attempt to slow his heartbeat. Then he launched himself into the air, willing the currents to stir up and support him. It was as if the air turned into geyser pedestal for him to step on as he bound across the stairs. He landed at the top of the stairs safely, no bones broken or injured pride. That was always a good way to start a break and entry.

He slowly opened the door of the first year girl's dormitory, and was relieved to see that there were no girls actually in it. Katelle's bed was in the middle of the room, not too far from the door, but not too close either. Her bed, unlike the other girls', was unmade and tousled up as though she tossed and turned violently at night. Her backpack was under the bed, clearly visible. Tom supposed the other girls were too afraid of Katelle to paw through her stuff.

Or they were too smart. That didn't say much for Tom.

He pulled the backpack out from under her bed, dirt rubbing off on his hands. He should have just taken off right then and there with the picture. He should have ignored the temptation to look back inside the pack of secrets. Unfortunately, he didn't. Something about the letter, strange machines, and books lit a burning fire of irresistible curiosity in him.

He peered around the journals, books, and letters to look at the small device at the bottom of the pack. It had a glowing face, with a strange picture showing. There were wires coming from the small thing, ending with crooked . . . things, which had soft-looking padding. There was an 'R' on one, and an 'L' on the other. A tinny sound came from them, coming in and out quickly. The face of the device had a bar, which turned yellow slowly, as if it was a timer.

On a random hunch, he brought the small crooked pieces to his ears. Immediately he was accosted with banging sounds, something that vaguely sounded like a screeching guitar, and a chorus of voices. "_Hammerfall, we will prevail . . . Hammerfall, let us in."_ Was it music? It wasn't like any music he had ever heard before, but it still sounded down-right awesome. So awesome, he sort of forgot where he was until the song ended.

The next song was similar, with the repeated line of "nothing else matters". Before he knew it, he had listened to two or three songs, each of which made his heart rate spike. He really needed to find out what kind of music it was. It made him feel like he could take on an army of those creatures and come out alive and triumphant.

He bit his lip, and looked at the picture. The dead person jumped out at him like before, but somehow he managed to steel himself and look beyond that. It was a room filled with screens like the ones at the theaters, only it showed things in color, like the picture, and music device. There were corridors, doors, more halls, and – gasp – more doors. There was one cam in the corner that showed a laboratory, with operating tables in a circle like an arena.

There was writing at the top of the screens, but it was too small for him to make out clearly. In the other corner of the picture, there was double doors with the large bold words "ICE LABORATORIES" on it. Ice laboratories? Or was it ICE laboratories, like an acronym? He was more likely to believe the latter. He pocketed the picture, thinking that somehow it was a story. There was something behind it, as if it was puzzle or something.

He opened the journal and looked over the pictures and entries. There were dates, codes, drawings, and names. Among them was a "Inosi Yohanin", and "Christine Willison", who were mentioned quite frequently. Only, the picture under Inosi Yohanin looked nothing like their charms teacher. It was a man with thick dark hair, the same Asian features, but ice-cold blue eyes, rather than brown. Over his head was the label "CEO of ICE".

What was ICE?

He went to skip ahead to a marked page with "ICE" on the marker, but something cold touched the back of his head. He heard a clicking sound that sounded a lot like a gun being cocked, along with the sudden sense that someone was standing behind him.

"If you _don't_ want a bullet in your brain," Katelle said in a dangerously soft voice, "then I recommend you put everything back."

Tom dropped the journal into her backpack, along with the music device. _Pity that,_ he thought.

"_What_ are you doing?" Katelle asked sharply, snatching her pack from his outstretched hands and set her gun on the table. She quickly searched through the bag, and then aimed her predator stare at him. "What did you do with the picture?"

Slytherins were known for cunning. Slytherins were known for ambition as well. But they was also known for saving their skin. Tom pulled the photo from his pocket and gave it to her quickly. He mustered his courage and asked, "what is that?"

"It's a dead person in a surveillance room." Katelle replied in a flat voice that was almost as emotionless as Allan's.

"I can see that," Tom said, risking it. "But why do you have it?"

He didn't really expect her to answer truthfully. That why he was surprised when she said, "it's a puzzle."

"A puzzle?" Tom echoed.

"Yes. And it was given to me to figure out." She said quietly, then she continued in a snarl, "only I can't figure out the hidden picture!"

"What's ICE?" Tom asked.

"Not important," Katelle snapped. She sat on the edge of her bed and stared at the picture. Then she curled her lip and covered the bottom part with her studded-gloved hand. "This was given to me after . . ." Her voice trailed off, leaving Tom hanging.

"After what?" He blurted.

"After a friend died." Katelle said sadly. "They sent this to me. I thought it was them gloating over their most recent kill. I almost destroyed it, but then I noticed something off about it."

"What?" Tom asked. It was so, so rare to get her in a talkative mood.

"The times," Katelle murmured. "The times on the surveillance screens are all different. They were photoshopped into the picture for a reason. This is a riddle, but for the life of me I can't make head or tails of it."

Tom hesitated, and then asked tentatively, "is there a pattern to the numbers?"

"I don't think –" She cut herself off. "0150 . . . 1200 . . . 0100 . . . 1405 . . .0200 . . .1800 . . . nope. Not ringing any bells.

"It was worth a shot." Tom muttered.

Katelle pocketed the picture. "I've tried everything. I've studied the times, the sequence of the times, the pictures of the rooms, but I can't figure it out."

Suddenly a loud blaring noise came from her pack. She reached in a grabbed another device, much like the music one, only bigger. There was a map of the world on it, with a bright red dot over Scotland. She tapped the dot, and the map zoomed into a blue map out of the countryside of Scotland. There was a large red dot over a thick area of woods, pulsating with the alarm.

"Well that's not good." Katelle grumbled.

"What's bad?" Tom asked frantically.

"If that's where the next time rip is . . ." She scowled. "Close your ears, Tom Riddle. You can't hope to understand _any_ of this."

"Doesn't mean I can't try," Tom muttered.

"Well, stop." She stood up and went for the door, her pack slung over her shoulder. She stopped before leaving and snapped, "Riddle!"

"What?" Tom asked timidly.

"Get out of the girls dormitory for bloody sakes!" She said in exasperation.

In the common room, they found Nico, Theon, and to Tom's surprise, Sirius. Katelle didn't look surprised. "So you guys finally got away?"

"Got away?" Tom asked. If he got anymore confused, he would have a temper tantrum. He hadn't been so frustratingly in the dark since he was three and realized he couldn't teach himself how to read.

"Prank," Theon explained. "You'll see at dinner."

"Which is now," Sirius muttered. "And I'm starved."

Katelle glanced at Tom. "There's some explaining to be done. Like how Riddle here got past the wards on the girl's staircase."

As they walked down the corridors of the dungeons to the Great Hall, Tom, reluctantly, explained his little gift to them. He noticed Nico, Theon and Katelle exchange glances. They seemed to have a silent argument for a few seconds, with the winner being the one who could dish out the dirtiest looks. Suffice to say, Katelle won rather easily, even though Nico's death glare was slightly terrifying.

"I really didn't want to have "the Talk" right now," Nico grumbled. "Okay, so Tom. There's a lot about us we haven't told you."

"No kidding," Tom muttered.

"Well, the truth is, we're demigods. Half-blood sons and daughters of immortal gods and goddess from Olympus." Nico said it as if it were obvious. "Like, I'm the son of Hades. Katelle's the daughter of Kronos. Get it?"

Tom waited a few paces, and then started laughing. _Ten points to Nico,_ Nico thought absentmindedly.

"Are you insane?" Tom asked incredulously.

"No," Nico suddenly dissolved into shadows and reappeared far ahead of Tom. "I'm not."

Tom shook his head. "There is now way –" he let out a startled yell as the ground cracked open, and a skeleton crawled out, it jaw chattering open and close loosely.

"You believe me now?" Nico asked, glowering.

"Uh, I'm kind of contemplating it," Tom border-line whimpered.

"He believes you," Katelle deadpanned in translation.

The skeleton disappeared back into the crack, which sealed itself. Tom swallowed dryly and rubbed his hands on his trousers. "So, why – why are you telling this, again?"

"You're a demigod, we don't know who your dad is, and no, we're not insane." Theon said with a grin, answering Tom's questions before he could ask them. "Welcome to the party, Riddle, son of someone, from the place of somewhere. Oh, and my dad's Hermes. Thieves and such."

Tom subconsciously reached for his wand, which was still tucked safely in his robe pocket.

Theon noticed the move, no matter how subtle it was, and laughed. "Don't worry, I won't steal anything. I have more important things to think about."

Tom struggled to force words out, but he found himself rather mute. Finally he managed, "gods?"

"Yeah," Nico said with a faint smirk.

"Demigods, you?" Tom was still have mechanical difficulties with his vocal cords.

Nico rolled his eyes. "Definitely related to Percy."

"Wait!" Tom gasped, "you're all demigods? Like all of you?"

"Yes," Theon said slowly – or as slowly as he could manage – watching Tom. "We're all demigods. Did that somehow not cross your mind?"

"I – um." Tom decided to divert from further humiliation and asked, "so, who's my dad? I mean, assuming . . ."

"No clue." Sirius said with a bright smile. "I'm sure the crusty old god will claim you sometime, though."

"Sometime," Theon snorted.

"No kidding," Nico muttered.

"I don't get it." Tom ground out. "What so funny? And if you say "inside joke", I'll –"

"Inside joke," Sirius said.

Tom let out an irritated huff. He glared at Katelle, which was a brave move, "I suppose you're not going to tell me what ICE is?"

"Nope." She said, stowing her handgun away in her jacket right as another student walked around the corner. She smiled awkwardly and waved, the butt of her weapon sticking out slightly.

Tom scowled deeply and walked ahead of them to reach the Great Hall before they did. Most of the students were already at their tables, and he could see Percy and Jason jump as Theon suddenly appeared between them. Nico followed him to the Slytherin table, where Albus and Severus were preparing to dig into their dinner. Tom sat down to Severus's right, and Nico dropped down next to him.

They sat in silence for a few seconds, Tom's mind in turmoil. He could see Nico visibly trying to scrounge up a speech. Tom could tell the son of Hades had gone through a lot of hardship. He supposed if anyone was going to give him the realism of the whole "demigod" thing, Nico would. Nico had a look Tom had often seen in himself, a guarded expression, like he was afraid to open up to anyone. Tom had bad experiences with friendship, and he guessed Nico did as well.

"It's difficult to come to terms with," Nico finally said. "I know. Maybe you won't be a son of Hades, though. You could be a son of Hephaestus. You seem good with your hands."

Tom studied his fingers. He liked to build things, yes. But wasn't Hephaestus supposed to be big and burly? Tom was slight, with nimble fingers and had a hard time sticking with one project for too long. "What about Zeus?" He asked.

Nico frowned. "I don't know. You don't look much like Zeus, but I guess that doesn't matter."

"I could take after my mother." Tom suggested.

Nico cringed, remembering the picture of Merope Gaunt he'd seen. Tom definitely did not take after Merope. "I don't know. Hephaestus seems to fit. Leo's a son of Hephaestus."

Over on the Ravenclaw table, a helicopter made from wire, pipe cleaners, rubber bands and forks took off. It shot out mini torpedoes of food and yelled in a voice that sound suspiciously like Coach Hedge: "DEATH TO QUEEN DIRT FACE! HAHAHAHA! PUT SOME CLOTHES ON!"

"You think I'm related to him?" Tom asked incredulously.

"I said you might be a son of Hephaestus," Nico amended. "I didn't say you're like Leo."

"Uh huh," Tom said, watching the helicopter fly around, avoiding Leo's attempts to catch it, totally rogue. "Lame retort."

Suddenly Theon appeared between him and Nico, with Sirius. Tom yelped and jumped away. Nico rolled his eyes. "Do you have to do that, Theon?"

Sirius looked a little quesy. "That was awesome."

Theon grinned. "You guys read? The potions is."

"What's it going to do?" Sirius asked.

"What potion?" Tom asked.

"Professor Yohanin!" Theon called innocently from his seat.

The Charms professor glared down at Theon from the Head Table. "Mr Azule. What are you doing on the Slytherin table?"

"Promoting house unity, of course!" Theon exclaimed. "Don't you think that's important?"

"Of course," Yohanin said smoothly. That's when the potion kicked in. Tom watched with morbid fascination as his nose grew longer on his face.

"And you agree that the rivalry between Gryffindor and Slytherin is a real problem?" Theon asked, his eyes glinting with amusement.

"Yes, Mr Azule." Yohanin sprouted long, hairy ears.

Several students clapped their hands over their mouths to muffle their sudden laughter.

"Sir, do you really think Hogwarts is doing a good job of protecting the students?" Theon asked, his eyes starting to water.

"Yes, Mr Azule," Cue a long, fur covered snout. "Is there a reason for this cross examination?"

"I'm sure there is, professor," Theon choked out. "Just a few more questions won't bother you, right?"

"No," Yohanin ground out. His hands turned to hooves. His face was covered in fur, and he had two large bucked front teeth. His arms were covered in mahogany fur, and his neck had grown much, much longer and furrier.

"Sir, are you feeling o-odd?" Theon asked, tripping over the last word with his struggle against laughing.

"No, why?" Yohanin.

Leo burst into laughter. "He's a llama!"

Half of the Great Hall started laughing. A few first years looked nervous, and some of the Slytherins looked affronted, but the rest of the school was clearly happy to see him put in his place. Yohanin looked at his arms with alarm and tried to stand up, but he fell on all fours. Tom was fairly certain that if Yohanin still had human skin, he'd be quite red with fury.

"Azule!" Yohanin howled angrily. He got up, pulling his wand out. Tom was half afraid the professor would curse Theon in the middle of the Great Hall.

"Professor," Dumbledore said quickly.

Across the table from Tom, Albus sagged with relief. Tom hadn't even realized how tense the redhead was until he relaxed. Tom wasn't sure what to make of Albus. He was somewhat quiet and had an unhealthy – literally unhealthy – obsession with lemon drops. He always seemed to know everything before Tom could even think it. What transfiguration charm to turn your diary silver with green stripes? He knew it. What incantation to make your stuff untouchable to all but you? He probably knew something for that as well.

Katelle appeared next to Tom. Her face was stormy, which seemed to be her theme, but her current scowl really took the gold metal. She had changed into much different clothes than the Hogwarts requirement. She had tried to wear "feminine" trousers, but she'd abandoned them for cargo capris and combats boots, with her Hogwarts robes over them. He still didn't know where she managed to find those clothes. He knew they didn't sell them at any shop.

"We have a problem." Katelle said in a low voice.

Severus leaned over to speak, "and what, pray tell, is the problem _now_?"

She grabbed Sirius's and Theon's collars and hauled them up. "Follow me."

* * *

><p><strong>AN: Playtime is about to end! At least for a few of them . . . not saying anything else. I'm horrible with spoilers. Like with the Blood of Olympus? I've already accidentally tipped off a few things to my mom. She was so mad.**

**Yulissab02: Yeah, putting Leo in Ravenclaw was an odd decision. I wish I had read the Blood of Olympus before I wrote that out, but seemed the best. Leo is, above all, a brainiac. And I put him in Gryffindor last time so I decided to change a few things up. Plus the Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff houses get ignored a lot, so i decided to give them a character that just can't be ignored. **

**I know putting Dumbledore in Slytherin was probably a bold move, but I couldn't see anything else. Dumbledore, while it was in the best intentions, really manipulated and tricked Harry a lot. He never just told Harry anything. He gave him cryptic clues and stuff. Not to mention he kept the horcrux thing secret for so long. And let Harry compete in the Tri-Wizard tournament just to know what Voldemort was up to. **

**Who has read the Blood of Olympus? If you haven't - read it now. It's the best book in the whole series. Not kidding. I loved it. I was constantly torn between laughing and crying the entire time. **

**I'll try to update pretty soon. I'm kind of busy with school, writing, physical fitness (yes, that takes a large amount of my day. I'm a exercise nerd), and painting. I'm working on cover art for the Rise of Magic and Correctional Travelers. I'm almost done with the former. **

**If you have any questions, or anything, review it! I love reviews. I've said that several times, but I just have to make sure it's written in stone. I like reviews. **


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter Eight**

**Attack of the Evil Wind Chimes**

"I went out into the woods to check out that blip on the ADD," Katelle explained as she, Tom, Severus, Sirius and Theon walked. "Another anomaly has opened up, right in the Forbidden Forest. I think that explains –"

"Whoa." Tom held up his hands. "Explain to me what an anomaly is and what an ADD is."

"ADD is attention –"

"No," Katelle sighed, "ADD means Anomaly Detection Device. It's an unfortunate acronym, but it stuck. The anomalies are temporal – meaning temporary – rips in time and dimension, allowing the past to coincide with the present. Make any sense?"

"Nope." Sirius and Theon said.

"I think so," Tom said slowly. "What you're saying is that if someone in the past was stuck in the past for year, a year would also go by in present."

"If the anomaly stayed open that long, yes." Katelle stopped at the top of the Great Stairs. "The problem is – there is no way to know when these anomalies open. If they open into the future . . ." she gave a humorless smile. "It's not good, to say the least."

"So, things come through them?" Tom said. "What kind of things?"

"Anything," Katelle said. "From dinosaurs to Predators. I only hope none of the students have had a run in with any of them yet."

However, that was when the doors of the Entrance Hall were thrown open, and several shrieks filled the place. Three students limped in, the boy in the middle being supported by the others. Even from where five-some stood at the top of the stairs, they could tell the student being supported was badly injured, not stricken with a simple twisted ankle.

Katelle swung straight over the edge of the great stairs, which made a few other people cry out in shock, and landed without injuring herself somehow. Theon and Sirius rushed down the stairs to see how badly injured the student – a boy – was. Behind them, Severus was pulling several vials of potions from his robes pockets – how much could he fit in there? – and was mixing them as he ran. Tom seemed torn between running after them, and going into the Great Hall.

They reached the three students, one of which was sobbing uncontrollably. The boy being supported seem only half-alive, which heavy gashes and abrasions up his stomach, neck and shoulders. Katelle stopped at the sobbing girl and grabbed her shoulders, shaking her quickly. "What happened? What did you see? What was it?"

The girl seemed stunned that Katelle would treat her so roughly – 1938, people – which snapped her out of her shock a little. "I – I don't know. It – it was big," she swallowed, nearly choking on another sob, "and fast. It took Than! We ran after them but these two boys told us to go back and we were so terrified and oh my lord it was a monster wasn't it!"

The girl talked faster and faster as her panic rate went up. Katelle pulled off her outer robes and draped it around the girl's shoulders. "Calm down. I'm going to ask again. What did you see?"

"It was large, and colorful," the girl sniveled.

Helpful.

Katelle nodded and gave the girl a friendly pat on her shoulder. "You're safe." Then she moved to the seventh year supporting the younger boy. "Are you more lucid than she is?"

Sirius shook his head. And just like that, Katelle Sparrow turned into Katlock Holmes. She asked the boy a few questions, but it turned out the monster had been to fast for them to see. So fast, they had only seem Than one moment, and then hadn't seen him the next. Sirius had thought Than Weasley was annoying, but that didn't mean he deserved to be dragged off by a killer monster and eaten.

Katelle finally stopped asking the seventh year questions and looked at the injured boy. Sirius rolled his eyes, "she doesn't think _he_ knows anything, does she?"

"Maybe she can scare some info out of him," Theon muttered back.

Katelle lifted the collar off the boy's shoulder, and grimaced. "Lacerations. There's bite-marks in a sharp U-curve on the base of the neck. An abrasion . . . Severus, come here."

Severus walked up with his potions, sneering at the other children. Sirius walked up behind them, his curiosity getting the better of him. Katelle listed off the wounds, which made Sirius's stomach get a little queasy. "Gashes on the side of his shoulders, there's rips in the trousers at his legs, and there's one large, diagonal slash down his abdomen."

Tom, who had finally decided to follow them, asked, "what does that mean?"

Katelle leaned back on her heels, wiping her hands off on her shirt. "I've seen stuff similar. We can talk about this somewhere else."

She guided them away, while Severus stayed behind and gave the three students calming potions, and for the injured one, a potion that prevented infection and quelled most kinds of venom. Theon leaned against the side of the stairs, and crossed his arms. "What is it?"

She glanced at Tom briefly, and then said, "raptor. It was definitely a raptor of some sort. The claw marks on the shoulders, bites on his neck, and especially the gash across his abdomen, was tell-tale."

"Uh, raptor?" Sirius asked. "What's that?"

She gave him an _are you stupid_ look, and explained briefly, "raptors are usually somewhat small, but deadly quick, intelligent, and have lots of sharp teeth and claws. They can vary in size depending on what kind of raptor they are."

"Oh, because I thought you were talking about the bird of prey raptor," Sirius laughed nervously. "Not the . . . monster of prey raptor."

"I'm glad I wasn't expecting something normal for a change," Theon sighed. "So now what?"

"If I'm right," Katelle said, "then we've got a pack of killers on Hogwarts grounds somewhere. We'll need to round up the others to look for them, but _do not_ kill any of them. Do you understand?"

"Okay?" Sirius said doubtfully. Katelle bounded up the stairs – after swinging herself on them half-way up, of course – and ran toward the Great Hall.

Sirius looked at Theon with misery. So, they had to hunt a pack of killer teeth and claws, which were fast and intelligent, could be anywhere, could be hungry, and could be angry. Oh, and they couldn't kill them for some reason. Life was looking downright _fun._ Sirius couldn't figure out if that was sarcasm or Siriusness.

He realized that was an oxymoron, since he was never serious about anything.

Percy was enjoying his pizza and listening to Annabeth chat about the architecture of the castle when Katelle ran the Great Hall. She looked around cautiously, wiping off stuff that look suspiciously like blood. She stopped at the Gryffindor table and said, "incursion. We need to scour the grounds. Now."

Jason made a _calm down _motion with his hands. "Why do we have to scour the grounds?"

"What's an incursion?" Percy asked.

Annabeth rolled her eyes. "It's a quick or sudden attack, or breakthrough in defenses."

"What's happening?" Piper asked, walking from the Hufflepuff table with Frank and Hazel.

"Follow me," Katelle said impatiently, whirling around without a further explanation.

"She really gives Snape a run for his money," Ron muttered.

The Seven and the Golden Trio followed her out of the Great Hall. Percy sadly bade good-bye to his pizza. He had a feeling he wouldn't be finishing it.

From the top of the stairs, Percy could see three students being treated by the Mediwitch of Hogwarts, and Severus. The Mediwitch didn't seem to question, or be bothered, by the fact that she was letting her patients drink potions given to them by an eleven year old Slytherin. In any case, the potions seemed to working miracles, which was no surprise, considering Severus was actually around forty years old.

Katelle flipped her silver knife in the air and caught it. She seemed tense. "We have a pack of raptors of some kind running around free on Hogwarts grounds."

Percy cringed. "I supposed you don't mean the bird of prey raptor?"

"Since when has our luck been that good?" Frank muttered.

"Raptors?" Leo asked, batting away some flames from his hand. "Like from _Jurassic Park?_ Cool!"

"Not cool," Annabeth corrected. "Imagine those things wandering around a _school._ A school filled with children, no less."

Leo paused and seemed the think about that. "Okay. I guess that's not so cool."

Piper swatted his arm, rolling her eyes. "Of course that's not cool, Leo!"

Jason felt at his waist, where his _gladius_ was kept. The Mist assured that the wizards didn't see the deadly golden blade that he walked around with all the time. "So, where do you assume they are?"

Katelle pursed her lips, flipping her knife again, deep in thought. "I'm not sure. Most raptors are wanderers. They don't really stick to one place for too long."

Hazel tapped on her _spatha_ impatiently. "So, is there any way we can find them?"

"We'll have to separate into groups," Katelle instructed. "No more or less than three. If you're in a group too large, they'll stay away because you're too big of a target. If you're too small, then you go from hunter to hunted."

"You seem to know a lot about this," Percy said. He had always wondered how Katelle knew so much about time travel, besides for the fact her dad was the lord of time.

"It's a long story," Katelle said.

Nico, Sirius, Theon and Tom appeared from the top of the stairs. Nico stopped by them. "So what's our plan?"

Katelle snorted. "Plan? There's no plan. You find the raptors, you _do not_ kill them, and we put them were they came from."

Tom frowned. "Since when were you for animal rights?"

"Exactly what I was thinking," Jason muttered.

Katelle slipped her knife in her boot. "Iris message if you find something."

Percy glanced at Tom, but Katelle waved it off. "He already knows about the gods."

He was tempted to ask how, but decided against it. Instead he asked, "so is everyone armed?"

Leo had his club, his tool belt, and his "epicness which would surely scare the raptors into submission. Piper had _Katoptris_, Jason had his _gladius_, and Nico had his Stygian Iron sword, _Tenebris._ Frank cheerfully informed them his shape-shifting skills hadn't failed him yet, which terrified the "dark lord" dignity out of Tom. It turned out he had a deadly fear mosquito hawks, which Percy found so hilarious he couldn't help but laugh.

Annabeth had her Celestial bronze knife, Percy didn't think she ever parted from it, even in sleep – not that he knew, of course! Hazel had her _spatha_, which she was proud to present to Tom, who could visibly be seen making a mental note not to tick Hazel off. Percy, of course, had Riptide. Nobody even asked about that. He hadn't separated from it for longer than twenty minutes – while he was at the Roman Senate meetings – in his life since he found out he was demigod.

Percy looked around, but he couldn't find Allan. That guy was so weird, it wasn't even funny anymore.

They ran down the stairs and slipped by the professors without being noticed, and stopped in the courtyard. The was setting in horizon, so the grounds were quickly turning a dull blue twilight color. Percy knew that sooner than later, it would dark and that would make their job a lot harder. Hunting monsters during the day was scary enough, but at night was just not fair. It was times like this that Percy wished he had Nico's night-vision eyes.

They quickly started to separate into groups, only Sirius kept trying to grab four people. Percy went with Annabeth and Tom, and Katelle told the others to "fight it out with whoever you want in your group" to everyone else. She grabbed Theon and Nico by their upper arms and marched off down toward the Forbidden Forest. Percy glanced at Annabeth, whose gray eyes were stormy with thought, and Tom, who looked a little terrified.

For some reason, Percy got the urge to make Tom feel a little less scared. He was, after all, only eleven years old. "Hey, it's okay." He said. "I'm sure they'll go after the bigger, more threatening kids in the groups. Not you, basically."

_They'll go after the bigger, more threatening Vikings,_ Gobber from How to Train Your Dragon echoed in Percy's head. _Great,_ he thought. _Now_ _I _know_my little pep talk__ didn't help __much__._

"Thanks," Tom muttered. "I feel ever so much better."

"What Percy means," Annabeth said as they walked towards the direction Hagrid's hut would be built in a few years, "is that they'll be more likely to attack the defensive, which is us, not you."

Tom scowled. "I'm not stupid. A predator always goes for the young, the sick, or the old of the pack. That would be me."

Percy shrugged noncommittally. "Well, to be honest, we're all pretty much the same size."

"Actually," Annabeth said with a smirk, "I'm a little taller than you."

Percy stopped in front of the Forbidden Forest. "Oh, be quiet, Wise –"

A snarling growl cut him off mid-nickname. It was followed by a cackling and popping noise, like a dolphin almost. Tom froze, his face draining of color. "Can I have a weapon?" He whimpered out.

"Do you know what these are?" Percy whispered, looking up at the trees as they rustled and bent as though something was jumping from branch to branch – something big.

"I have a good idea," Tom replied, backing up so he was partially behind Percy. "And we need more people. And those machine gun things."

A creature dropped from the trees. A small part of Percy's brain registered that Tom shouldn't know what a machine gun was, but most of his brainpower was focused on the monster. Then two more fell from the trees, their long arms carrying the across the ground, and claws digging gouges in the grass. Two more monsters lunged at the original creatures. These ones had brightly colored feathers sprouting from their back, head and lining their arms and tail.

"Those are the raptors," Annabeth whispered as they backed away. "Looks like we found the pack."

"What was easy," Percy muttered.

He just had to talk.

Just then a misty screen opened up in front of them. Hazel, Frank and Leo's faces appeared. "Hey, we found the pack. We're spreading the word."

Percy laughed nervously and whispered, "funny thing is? We found the pack, too."

Leo frowned. "There's more than one pack?"

"I think so –"

A scream cut him off mid-sentence. The raptors and the other creatures looked up toward the forest, where the scream came from. Then they took off at the same time, snapping and biting at each other in an attempt to get to whoever screamed first. The creatures, which vaguely resembled the MM monsters they fought in Deos-Natale, jumped into the trees while the raptors ran with lightening speed into the forest.

"We gotta go," Percy said, cutting his hand through the Iris message. He looked at Annabeth, who got his hidden message and nodded.

She pushed Tom in front of her. "I'll watch your back."

Tom still didn't seem very relieved, but he nodded. "Okay. If I die I'm coming back to haunt you."

"I totally could see it," Percy grumbled as they plunged into the forest.

It was much darker in the Forbidden Forest that what it looked like from the outside looking in. The huge trees rose up, higher than any tree Percy had ever seen before. The roots were tall enough for him to hide behind comfortably, and made good points for monsters to ambush them with. Percy was on edge the entire time, and the shrieks of the raptors and the monsters as they fought didn't help one little bit.

Tom stayed directly between Percy and Annabeth, jumping at any sound. Percy was beginning to think Tom had some kind of experience with the monsters, but wouldn't say anything but an ambiguous grunt that could be anything from "yes" to "no" to "blue pancakes". Okay, Percy doubted the last one, but he did know that Tom was keeping something to himself.

"So this probably isn't the best time," Tom said in a low voice as they crouched behind a tree root, waiting for the monsters to fight themselves out and lead them to whoever screamed. "But, do demigods get important dreams? Like how the heroes in the old stories and myths did?"

"Yeah," Annabeth replied. "We'll get dreams that basically can tell us things we didn't understand before, or give us key pointers in our quests. The gods also communicate with us in dreams."

"Dreams can also be sent to make our lives the embodiment of confusion," Percy mumbled.

"What if you have a dream of a place, or people you know? Only they seem . . . older?" Tom asked. "Hypothetically, I mean." He added quickly.

"Then you're hypothetically seeing something that's important." Annabeth said.

"What is ICE?" Tom asked. "It's an acronym, but I don't know what it is!"

"Never heard of it," Percy said honestly. "Incredibly Cunning Elephants?"

"Somehow I doubt that's it," Tom grumbled.

"Impossible Cutting Elves?"

"Uh, no?"

"Impersonating Cute Everything?"

"What?"

"Seaweed Brain!" Annabeth hissed in annoyance. "Come on! The monsters are moving."

Percy stood up. "We'll talk about the Industry of Cuddly Ears later."

Just as they were going to leave, another Iris Message appeared in front of them. Percy wheeled backward to keep himself from passing through the mist. Theon's nervous face filled the mist. "Uh, Katelle's busy. Long story. She wanted me to tell you that the plan has changed. Apparently we can kill the ones that are really hard to kill, but the feathery ones we still can't."

In the background, a flash of blonde and black blurred by, and slammed into to a tree with a yell of pain. A monster leapt on the body, but was impaled by a boomerang. Katelle shoved the body of the monster off of her and grabbed Theon's shoulder. "We gotta go. The monsters are all retreating to the Forbidden Forest, so I'm assuming they are going back through the anomaly."

A monster went flying behind her, and Nico chased after it with three skeletons. Percy tore his eyes from the boomerang in her hand, dripping with greenish-yellow blood. "So where is that?"

She shrugged. "Just follow the monsters."

"That's what we were doing," Annabeth said. "We have to go, before we lose them."

"Okay, great. See you there." It was as if they were discussing meeting for coffee at a shop, rather than a rendezvous point in the middle of a forest infested with monsters. She went to slice her boomerang through the mist, but stopped. "Oh, and make sure shrimp over there doesn't die? We're going to kind of need him."

With a flash of gooey boomerang, the Iris message disappeared. Behind Annabeth and Percy, Tom sighed. "I suppose she meant me when she said shrimp, didn't she?"

"Yeah. That seems to be your nickname." Percy said. "Shrimp."

"Stop it," Tom growled as they set off in the direction the raptors and the Predators went. It wasn't hard to tell, with the path of destruction and chaos they left in their wake from fighting.

"Shrimp." Percy said. Hey, he was eleven in the body. Might as well act the part for once.

"Don't!" Tom hissed. "I _hate_ shrimp!"

"Hey!" Percy protested. "That's my dad's turf, there."

"Then don't call me shrimp!" Tom snapped.

"You don't mind it when Katelle calls you shrimp." Percy pointed out with a smirk. He could see Annabeth rolling her eyes in front of them.

"That's – that's different." Tom insisted. "It's not like I can say no. She'd like break my arm or something."

"Shrimp."

Tom groaned and covered his ears. "I am going to kill all shrimp in the world. When I get out of Hogwarts, my life goal will be to exterminate _all_ seafood."

Percy braced his hand on a root and swung over it. "I like seafood, thank you very much. What are you going to say to the people who like seafood?"

"Too bloody bad." Tom tripped over a root. "That's it. Add roots onto my list of assassination."

Percy got a random image of Voldemort holding Nemo hostage and giving the fish the "cleansing the world of the dirty seafood" speech. A fish assassin? That's a sorry job.

They stumbled along, and Tom nearly had a coronary when a hand shot out and pulled him to the ground, covering his mouth so it muffled his rather girlish screech. Nico and Theon ambushed Percy and Annabeth, forcing them into kneels behind an outcropping of bushes lining a small opening in the forest. Percy spun around, and Theon shrugged. Annabeth was going for her dagger, but Katelle held out her hands.

"Don't freak out! Sheesh." She let go of Tom, who looked like he was trying not to have a panic attack. "You guys were about as stealthy as an elephant doing ballet in a room full of garbage dispensers."

Percy snorted, "And you thought _I_ had an interesting imagination."

"_Why_ did you do that?" Tom hissed furiously.

Katelle shrugged. "Your face was priceless, though. Oh, and I didn't want you to alert that whole pack of Predators and _utahraptor_ over there."

"Utahraptor?" Percy echoed.

"They exist," Annabeth said.

"Wait, wait!" Percy said. "Let me guess. They found in . . . what is Utah? Is that a 200 or 500 dollar question?"

"It was a smack upside the head question," Katelle muttered. She peered over the top of the bushes, her eyes narrowed. "There – you see it?"

Percy, Tom, Annabeth, Theon and Nico looked over the bushes cautiously. There was a shining spot in the air, pulsating slightly with light that belong from the time the portal went to. It was hard to tell in the dark, but Percy thought the rip in time looked like hundreds of shards of glass, spinning slowly around the center of the tear. The shards spiked out and in, like it was breathing, or was a heartbeat. It was as if there was literally a shattered spot in time, and there was glass left over.

"So, now what?" Percy asked in a low voice. Now that he saw the monsters fighting in the field, he didn't want to startle them.

"We have to startle them into the anomaly." Katelle replied. "We all run out at once, and that should be enough to scare them back home."

"What are the Predators?" Annabeth asked. "I don't remember any dinosaur like that."

"They're not from any recorded era," Katelle murmured.

"What do you mean?" Tom asked, and motioned at the clearing.

"It's a long story." Katelle whispered back sharply. "Now be quiet!"

"No recorded era?" Annabeth asked. "What are you saying . . . the future?"

"Thousands of years in the future," Katelle whispered. "I don't know where they came from, or how they evolved into what they are, but it's one of the things that led to the destruction of –"

"Destruction of what?" Annabeth asked.

"It's not important." Katelle murmured. "It's not going to happen."

"The destruction of humanity." Tom suddenly said. His eyes widened as though a thousand things had suddenly fallen into place. "That's it! You're all from the future aren't you? And you," he pointed at Katelle, "you've seen the future and destruction of all humans, haven't you?"

She shook her head and said through gritted teeth, "this is not the time."

Suddenly, across the clearing, there was a snap and a boy fell from a tree. Another student let out a startled cry, which they couldn't quite make out from where they hid, but it was enough. All of the dinosaurs and Predators in the clearing stopped fighting and turned toward the boy, who was struggling to get up, and a girl, who was climbing down to get him. There was something familiar about the girl and boy . . .

"It's Than and Inanni," Katelle said matter-of-factly. "Crap. Change of plans: I'll distract the dinosaurs and lead them into the anomaly. There should be another anomaly in that time, that leads to the future where the Predators belong. I'll lure them there."

"By yourself?" Percy asked.

"Are you insane?" Theon put in. "I've seen these things before, they run almost as fast as me! There's no _way_ you can outrun them, and that anomaly is getting weaker."

"How can you tell?" Annabeth asked.

"What if more than one person goes?" Tom suddenly blurted. "If there's more than one target, they could get confused. That would give everyone time to get out alive."

"Clever," Katelle said, "but no one's going to want to get stuck in the future. Believe me."

"We can't let these things get caught in this time," Theon said. "The Predators breed like maniacs and the _utahraptor_ need to be returned to their time. All sorts of problems could happen to the time line if they're misplaced."

"Um, we're –"

"Out of time!" Katelle snarled. She grabbed her automatic from her pack and leapt over the bushes, firing several loads into the air. "Over here!"

The monsters stopped stalking the two students and watched her with interest. A few of the Predators started to run after her, and she charged straight through the anomaly, disappearing. Only a third of the pack followed her, since they had perfectly helpless victims in front of them. Theon ran out, and Nico lunged to stop him, but was too slow. Percy ran after the son of Hermes, which only made him a target as well.

Annabeth leapt out of the bushes and grabbed his hand. "Together or nothing," she said firmly.

Percy nodded, and yelled, "hey! Weird colorful chicken things! Over here!"

The dinosaurs watched them, and then the whole pack lunged at them at the same time. Percy just had time to think _uh oh_ before Theon darted out and grabbed him and Annabeth and started to run for the anomaly. A Predator jumped in front of them, blocking their way, snarling and popping as it used echolocation to see their heartbeats, which were racing faster than a horse's after a full gallop. Percy imagined they could probably hear their heartbeats from ten miles away.

The shining, glass-like floating wind chime got closer by the second as they ran, but so did the monsters behind them. Percy thought his arm was going to be permanently dislocated from his socket because of how fast Theon took off. Just as he took a step, Theon took three or four, so Percy sort of looked like he was half-skipping, half-tripping his way to the anomaly at about twenty-five miles per hour.

Tom, who had been ducking behind the bushes the whole time, suddenly burst out with remarkable speed as three raptors leapt at him at once.

_Okay,_ Percy thought. _That has to be all of the creatures . . ._

Then he saw the real reason Tom moved so fast. A Predator – _much_ bigger than the others – burst out of the treeline, running on all fours after Tom. Percy hadn't thought it was possible for an eleven year old that wasn't blessed with the power of speed like Theon to run as fast as he did. It was as if the air propelled him forward. Or maybe it was his utter terror that propelled him forward so fast.

Percy looked forward, where he was actually running, just in time to see a flash of glass. A bright light flooded his vision and they were suddenly in a totally different world. Percy slowed in shock, gaping at his surrounds, which nearly resulted in his arm being extracted from his shoulder by the freight train know as Theon. He let out a sharp yelp, and struggled to keep in step with Theon. Annabeth didn't appear to having any more luck.

They ran up a sloping hill, which had an outcropping of rocks at the top, over-looking a rolling valley of golden grass, distant dark green forests. A huge herd of . . . whatever those dinosaurs were – they looked like part rhino, part cow, and part reptile rolled into one – grazed on the grass, doing their important job as an organic automatic lawn mower. The ground they walked on was sandy and warm, the heat pulsating off the ground and warming Percy to the bone. He hadn't realized how cold England was until he came here.

The sky was a brighter blue than he remembered, with a few wispy clouds near the horizon. The sun was directly the sky, as apposed to where they came from. It had been nearly dark in England of 1938, but by the looks of the sun in this era, it was high-noon. There was a screech, and a huge bird – and when he said huge, he meant _huge_, like the size of a small aircraft – soared over their heads, scanning the ground for acceptable food.

Grass? _Nah._ Big scaly cow things? _Pass._ Monsters chasing those two-legged pinklings? _Nope._ The two legged pinklings themselves? _Hmm . . . __I'll take an order of Percy Jackson with a side of Annabeth and Tom. _

Percy was yanked from his morbid thoughts as Theon ducked behind the outcropping of rocks, pushing them into a small cave-like alcove. As Tom ran by, Theon grabbed him and shoved him into the alcove unceremoniously as well. Theon scrambled back into the alcove as far as possible, his breathing short and ragged. Then he began taking large, exaggerated breaths, pressing his fingers on his pulse. Percy was about to ask when Theon explained for him.

"Slow you breathing and pulse rate," Theon instructed. "It'll make it harder for them to find us."

"We're right behind an alcove of rocks!" Tom hissed. "Can't they just _smell_ us?"

Theon shook his head. "No. Where they come from, smell is useless. They have evolved to see sound, because that's all they had to go by."

"Where do they come from?" Tom asked. When Theon hesitated, Tom let out an irritated huff. "Oh would you just tell me? I can already tell we're millions of years in the past. Those creatures on the hill are _Maiasaurus_, which lived roughly 85 million years ago."

Annabeth nodded appreciatively. "He knows his stuff."

"Okay, fine," Theon said. "They're from the future. Way, way far in the future. We have to find the anomaly that they came through and send them _all _back. If we don't, then they'll get on the loose here and it'll be the end for us all."

"There's not that many of them," Tom said doubtfully. "Would they just –"

"_Shh!_" Annabeth whispered. The ground started to pound, and suddenly the entire pack ran by, chasing something. Thankfully, they didn't seem to realize that the something they were chasing was hiding behind the rocks.

One Predator broke off from the pack, inspecting the outcropping in the rocks. It was smaller than the rest, a juvenile, and curious about what was behind those rocks. _Who knew?_ The Predator probably thought. There could be tasty pinklings behind the rocks, hiding. They did that a lot, after all. For some reason the pinklings didn't like to be torn to pieces and eaten. The Predator didn't know why. Ripping and eating was just so fun!

It could hear heartbeats throbbing from around the rocks. Their fear radiated through the atmosphere, filling him with a blood frenzy. They were prey, and they were _his_ prey. He took several steps forward, sending out more waves of echolocation. He was only a few feet away. They were dead meat. He coiled, and went in for the kill.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: Another chapter finished! I enjoyed this one a lot. Well, I've kind of enjoyed this whole story so far. Not much more to say than: the Predator likes pinklings. **

**PokeCaptain: Thank you! And I don't think I will, because a lot of people still haven't read BoO yet, so I don't want to spoil anything for them. **

**MysticRyter: Sorry for tricking you into that. Well, not really. (Yep, stole a page from Rick Riorden's book. Now I know why he did that unspeakably cruel author's note.)**

**princessofthenight17: I won't be putting any spoilers in here, don't worry. **

***muttering* how can people no like spoilers? I hope you enjoyed this chapter as well as the last one! And remember to review. :D I feel like a beggar. Reviews! Reviews for the homeless!**


	9. Chapter 9

**Heads up! There's a really tiny little spoiler for BoO in here, so if you don't want to read it skip over the part that starts and ends with *^*^*. It's really a minor spoiler, and won't kill anything about the book. But if you're really strict about it, I put that there. So yeah. Enjoy!**

* * *

><p><span><strong>Chapter Nine<strong>

**Back to the Future**

Percy held his breath as the Predator came closer and closer. Theon pulled a small object from his robes pocket that resembled Hermes' caduceus and flicked it. It elongated into a dagger that was a few inches longer than Pipers, but shorter than Percy's sword. The hilt was adorned with symbol of twisted snakes, also like Hermes' complaining wand, with a single strip of Imperial Gold running down the middle of the blade. The outside blade was a glowing type of silver, and then the very edges were Celestial bronze.

Had Percy not been seconds away from being turned into Predator chow, he'd be jealous.

Sickle claws gripped the side of the outcropping rocks, and then a double-domed head followed. Its beady black eyes were near sightless, but its open maw sent out wave upon wave of echolocation. It immediately knew that there were four tasty demigods, all starring the character Sitting Duck. It coiled down, its muscles tensing to attack and –

Theon sword shot out and ran straight through the monster's chest.

Tom let out a strangled sound that resembled a mix of a dry-heave and a sigh of relief. He coughed several times and said, "I thought you weren't killing them. Something about rupturing time?"

"Weren't you listening?" Theon pushed the Predator off his blade and kicked its carcass away. He peered over the outcropping, and stood up when he saw nothing threatening. "They're from two thousand years on the future, give or take a century. We can't change the past if they're from the future."

"But would that change the future after that future?" Tom asked. "Like, if you killed that one, it changed something after that."

Theon and Percy looked at him in disbelief. Theon laughed, pressed the twisted snakes. The sword shrank back down to its original size. "I think you're looking into this _way_ too much."

Tom scowled. "I'm new here!"

"Tom Riddle admitting he doesn't know something?" Percy muttered. "Hold you breath, the world might end!"

Theon snickered. "Come on. We have to find the anomaly to the future. And Katelle – preferably alive."

"That would be good," Percy said.

They stood up quietly, followed the dust trail the Predators and raptors left in their wake. Percy's hyperactive brain was on turbo, taking in every bit of change that the Earth had over gone in a period of 85 million years. There were plants that looked like creatures from _Metroid Prime_, and fungi that grew on rocks, trees, and could take over their hosts. Theon warned Percy not to touch it, unless he wanted to turn into a walk mushroom.

The assortment of dinosaurs was amazing. Percy didn't know how – and he didn't ask for fear of a lecture – but Theon seemed to know exactly was season it was. As they reached the peak of a hill, another narrow valley opened below them. It was like an interstate for the dinosaurs, their yearly migration rout. The valley was lined with a dense forest, so anything could hide in there and no be seen. The thousands of prehistoric footsteps thundered on the ground, so it felt like a permanent earthquake.

Theon knelt behind a rock. "We don't have time to wait, but you guys really should see this."

Percy waited a few seconds, and then burst out, "see what? The dinosaurs are all running –"

An explosive roar cut Percy off, and a ginormous dinosaur crashed out of the treeline surrounding the migration rout. Percy felt like the breath had been stolen from his lungs. He had seen dinosaurs skeletons – all thanks to Nico – but he had never seen such a large dinosaur _alive._ It was built like a _tyrannosaur,_ but Percy thought it looked a little taller and scrawnier than a good old T-Rex.

"What is it?" Percy asked.

"_Gigan__t__osaurus,_" Theon murmured back. "Bigger and faster than a T-Rex. Those are the guys that separated me from Ivan and Aiden."

The _Gigantosaurus _lunged at a smaller dinosaur – one of the rhino/cow/reptile things – and clamped its jaws on the prey's neck. The rhino-cow-a-tile-saurus let out once high pitched squeal before falling to the ground under the weight of the _gigantosaurus's_ foot and jaws. Within a few seconds the theropod had ground up fast food at his feet.

Tom looked greener than Percy had ever seen him. "That was disgusting. Why did you put me through that?"

Theon stood up half way and crept down the side of the hill. They followed until they were sure they were out of sight and hearing distance. When he finally started to talk, he looked a little sad. "It's hard to explain. I had such an awe of dinosaurs, it was like I was in a movie. It wasn't until I saw what they could do that I snapped into reality."

"Plus it was kind of cool watching that big guy take down another big guy," Percy grinned.

"You people are weird," Tom grumbled.

"How did you and the twins live here for so long?" Annabeth asked as they restarted their trek after the Predators. "I'd constantly be afraid of messing up the timeline."

"We weren't too stressed about that," Theon said. "I mean, we were sent there to change something. We did try to preserve what we could, though. We ate lots of roots, shrubs, insects."

Tom cringed. "Insects?"

The son of Hermes laughed. "Yeah, well. There's a reason I lost weight I couldn't afford."

Theon led them all the way down the hill, and then stopped and ran at a small bush. He began to uproot it, and stuffed it in his pocket. When he saw them staring at him, he gave a laugh. "This stuff heals almost as good as ambrosia and nectar. You never know when you'll need it, or how much, so I just splurge and take the whole thing."

"Eating grass," Tom mumbled. "I'm feeling more and more like a cow."

"We need to hurry," Annabeth said. "Those anomaly things can obviously close and I don't want to be stuck in the Cretaceous Period."

"Why?" Percy asked jokingly. "Does shrubs with a side show of bad dino good dino not appeal to your tastes?"

"I wouldn't say bad dino, good dino," Tom said thoughtfully. "More like intermediate dino, helpless dino."

Theon and Percy looked at him dumbly. Theon shook his head. "I said it once and I'll say it again. You look into things _way_ too much."

It didn't take them much longer to find the anomaly, which glowed brightly on the side of a tall, sloping hill. Percy kicked a few all-healing shrubs out of the way, walking up close to the anomaly. The light flickered on their face from the spinning shards of time and dimension. It had a hypnotizing affect, like a camp fire. That was, until Percy remembered there were a bunch of bloodthirsty monsters on the other side of it.

"You know," Theon under his breath, "I think the _utahraptor _went through. They weren't supposed to do that."

"Yeah." Annabeth muttered. "They weren't supposed to, but we have to get away from here. One of those things could come back."

"Wait!" Tom held up his hands. "I don't want to get stuck here anymore than you guys, but what about Katelle? She's in there!"

"Not only Katelle," Theon muttered, fingering the beads on his necklace.

"What do you mean?" The words had barely left Annabeth's mouth when Theon darted into the anomaly.

"Hey!" Percy yelled. He lunged to grab Theon's arm, but was hilariously slow. Percy ran though after him, with Annabeth and Tom right behind him. He held his hand in front of his face as he walked into the anomaly, shuddering as he passed through the patch of ice cold air before stepping into an environment that was the complete opposite.

Percy stopped running as soon as he saw the place he dove in to.

There was a city before him, but instead of shining skyscrapers and hundreds of cars, there was rusty, crumbling ruins. Cars lined the sides of the streets, covered in dust and rust from old age, their doors open as if their owners had left in a rush. Most of the windows in the structures were broken and smashed out. There were shells of bullets on the barren, sandy, ground, along with a few abandoned assault rifles.

The air was hot and burned his lungs, with dust visible in the air. There was not one sound of life, only their own heartbeats and a trail of upturned dirt from where Theon had ran. Percy cautiously stepped forward, and his foot crunched on something. He froze, cringing as the noise seemed the echo in his head.

He picked up what he had stepped on. It was the anomaly detected device Katelle had before she disappeared. The glass screen was fracture, but it must had been really thick glass because the mapped out screen still displayed the world. A red blip pulsed where they stood, marking the anomaly to the Cretaceous Period. At least they didn't have to worry about getting lost.

And of course, Percy thought too soon.

The screen flickered, and the red blip waned. The long antenae was snapped half-way, so Percy figured its range wasn't as good as before. It was probably barely picking up the anomaly right behind him. If only he hadn't thought something hopeful. The ADD would probably be working still.

A gust of wind blew some metal debris – possibly from a car, or a roof tile, Percy couldn't tell – across the ground. The place looked like something straight from _I Am Legend._ Percy really wanted to leave before the freaky zombie dudes attacked. He wondered if there was zombies in the future . . .

Annabeth knelt in front of a machine gun. She picked it up, examining the gun. "This is high-level weaponry. It resembles something my dad is building, but it hasn't been released yet."

"So that proves it. We're not actually in some ancient city that destroyed millions of years ago." Percy asked, looking up at the dull orange cloudy sky. "I mean, no fun play and so on. This is actually humanity's future."

"It seems so," Annabeth muttered, dropping the weapon.

"Maybe we should leave," Tom said nervously.

"You were the one worried about Katelle," Percy replied.

"That was _before_ I saw what the future looked like," Tom grumbled. He took a few steps back, and let out a sharp cry of surprise.

Percy whirled around in time to see Tom teetering on the edge of a sheer cliff. An enormous chasm ran almost all the way around the city, turning it into a peninsula of sorts. He leapt forward and grabbed Tom's hand by the fingers just before he fell out of range to hold onto. Tom's face was as white as sheet, and his free hand scrabbled at the side of the cliff for handholds. Percy knelt down to give himself lower center of gravity and held out his other hand.

"Hey, take my other hand. I'll pull you up." It was times like this that Percy really missed his older body. He had been so much stronger, even if he had been trying to regain his strength over the past few weeks.

With some effort, Tom swung his arm up and grabbed Percy's hand with a death grip. Percy hauled him back up on the solid ground, and Tom immediately lunged away from the cliff. "Vile gravity!"

"Nasty hobbits-es," Percy muttered as he stood up. "Now where would I hide if I was a half-way insane girl with a power trip being chased by a pack of crazy Predators?"

"She would look for a shelter," Theon appeared, making Tom give a short gasp of shock.

"Stop doing that!" Tom snarled. "You just appear out of no where all the time!"

"What's his problem?" Theon asked.

"One word," Percy replied. "Cliff."

"Ooh_,_" Theon said with a grin. "Have a tumble down the rabbit hole, did you?"

"I hate you," Tom muttered. "All of you."

"Theon, where is this?" Annabeth asked, motioning at the ruins of the city. "I mean, I know it's the future, but where on Earth is it?"

"This?" Theon cast critical eyes on the city. "I believe this is London."

Annabeth looked struck speechless. She started to walk toward the city, and Percy shouted, "what are you doing?"

"There has to something about this in the city," Annabeth said. "We need to know how this happened. And keep your voice down!"

Percy ran to stop her, which took him farther from the anomaly than he would have liked. "Annabeth, that's crazy. I mean, I'm totally for crazy, but this is like tackling Tartarus again. Only this time, the monsters can hear our heartbeats and move a lot faster."

"Not to mention, they're intelligent," Theon put in. "Going in there is suicide, Annabeth. It's practically their breeding grounds. There's hundreds – if not thousands – of them in there."

She turned around with an irritated sigh. "This is the future of _our_ world. This doesn't just affect us, this is the _entire_ world. Mortals, gods, nymphs, _us._ Percy, this needs to be investigated."

"We don't know if the whole world is like this," Theon said doubtfully.

"No," Tom said, startling them. "I had a dream about a place that looked like this, only it wasn't a city. Just miles upon miles of desolate land. This goes across the entire world."

"Which is why we need to investigate," Annabeth repeated. Percy felt like he stepped into a debate round. "There has to be a library, or a business building. We could even search for newspaper clippings."

Percy turned Riptide over in his hands. "As much as it's really dangerous, I'm with Annabeth on this one. If there's any way we can prevent this, we need to know."

"There's already people out there to do that!" Theon cried, waving his arms around. He motioned to the buildings and the broken cars. "This place is _filled_ to the brim with monsters."

"What people?" Annabeth asked. "Who are they?"

"I don't know," Theon said. "I've chanced upon them a few times. They research the anomalies and try to find ways to stop them. The reason I could only find a way to get to time like 1938 was because they have ways of stopping anything from going in and out of the anomaly. I had to come through to time where they weren't messing with them. It's impossibly hard to get to the 21st century."

"Hate to break this up, but," Tom pointed at the anomaly, which was beginning to pulsate in and out, as if the "breathing" was getting erratic. "Is is supposed to be doing that?"

"It's closing," Theon breathed. "It's closing! Hurry up!"

He pushed Percy and Annabeth toward the anomaly, while dragging Tom behind him. Their footsteps sent dust pluming into the air, occasionally crunching on a round of ammo, or broken glass. Percy grabbed Annabeth's hand and jumped at the anomaly. Just as he was about to pass through, it disappeared, leaving nothing but empty air and rather large chasm behind it. Theon yanked Percy back before he could fly off the cliff, and they took several steps back, staring at the place where their way home used to be.

"Where is it?" Tom asked.

"It's gone," Theon said pulling his caduceus from his pocket and flicking it into sword form. "It might open up again, but there's no way of knowing when."

Percy wiped his hands on his trousers. "So until then?"

"We're stuck here," Theon said.

* * *

><p>Jason ran his hands through his hair, pacing in front of the anomaly. Percy and Annabeth had been in there with Theon and Tom for over twenty minutes. He didn't know how long the wind chime things stayed open, but it wasn't bound to stay how it was forever. He was getting restless of standing in the Forbidden Forest with a wailing Inanni Dolohov and a surprisingly quiet Than Weasley.<p>

"What were you guys even doing out here?" Piper asked Inanni. "You knew that the Forbidden Forest was off limits."

"I wanted to make sure it was closed!" Inanni cried. "After last year, I wanted to make sure that the monsters never came back!"

"What were they?" Than asked softly. "They clearly weren't normal creatures."

"That's not important," Piper replied.

"I'm all for risky," Sirius said, "and that was totally a risk I would have taken. So I guess I can't say anything wise and reprimanding to you."

"Frank would have just turned into a weasel," Leo blurted.

"_What?_" Inanni shrieked.

"Inside joke!" Leo said quickly. His hair started to smoke.

Sirius jabbed Leo with his elbow and coughed. He scratched his head, trying to send the message that Leo was about to spontaneously combust in a matter of seconds. Leo seemed to get the hint, because the smoking stopped, but Inanni was still giving him a confused look. Jason figured the way they were going, they'd reveal to Inanni and Than that they were demigods sooner than later.

He stared back at the anomaly. How long had it been now? Thirty, forty minutes? He counted to ten. They didn't come out. He counted to ten again. They still didn't come out. "That's it." He burst out. "I'm going to go look for them. They've been in there over a _half hour!_"

"I don't think they wanted anyone to follow them," Frank stated cautiously.

"I agree with Jason," Piper said. "They have been in there for a long time, and that . . . anomaly could close at any second."

"But if you go in there," Draco said, "you could get stuck as well. That would be counterproductive."

"Didn't Theon say that the twins were in the Cretaceous?" Jason asked.

"I think so," Nico murmured. "They could be still in there! We should go look for them while Percy and Annabeth look for Katelle."

"Just like that?" Draco sighed irritably. "Then you'd get stuck, leaving you no better off than your annoying brothers."

Nico's face visibly darkened. "Want to say that again?"

"Guys!" Piper called, her voice layered with charmspeak. "I think we should wait a little longer. If they don't come through, then we can look for them. How's that?"

"Fine, I guess." Jason agreed reluctantly.

He looked at the anomaly, torn with decisions. He remember a conversation he had had with Percy's mother before they left. He knew Sally Jackson had gone to at least him and Annabeth with direct orders to bring Percy back in one piece. He had sworn to her that he would protect all of the seven, including Percy. He didn't plan of breaking his promise, either.

Nico looked even more restless than Jason. Only a few more minutes passed before he finally burst out, "I'm going in. If anyone wants to come, be my guest."

Jason glanced back at everyone. Piper nodded at him. "Jason, Nico and I will go in. Do _not_ let anyone else go through!"

Leo grinned and mock-saluted. "Aye-aye, beauty queen!"

"And don't call me beauty queen," Piper added.

"Yeah, yeah," Leo waved it off.

Nico didn't waste time with ceremony. He jogged straight through the anomaly and disappeared into the other side, leaving Jason and Piper no choice but to follow. Piper waved one more time before walking through. Draco raised his eyebrows at them in response, and Hazel smiled nervously. Frank looked torn between following and staying, but Jason aimed a _don't even think about it_ look at him.

On the other side, Jason was stunned see the difference between the 20th century and the Cretaceous Period. They were on a hill, facing a valley with hundreds of cow-like dinosaurs grazing. There was a sparse pine forest to their left, and behind them a wide desert stretching out for miles. Jason never would have thought that several billion years ago, Scotland was a desert.

Nico looked around. "Where did they go?"

"See the path?" Piper pointed to the ground. The soil was turned up from tons of dinosaurs running over it. "They probably followed that to find Katelle."

Nico looked hesitant. "I wonder where . . ."

Jason felt a pang of sympathy for the son of Hades. "Nico, we can't even be sure if this is the right year for Ivan and Aiden to be here. It could be six hundred years in the past or future."

"I know," Nico snapped.

"Let's follow the path," Piper suggested. "With all the noise that the dinosaurs and the Predators made, if Ivan and Aiden were here, they would have stopped to investigate."

Jason didn't want to get Nico's hopes up, for fear of them being dashed, but nodded anyway. "That sounds like a plan."

"Fine," Nico muttered.

They set out down the hill, and Jason took the time Nico was distracted by his inner thoughts to watch him. Jason worried about Nico, since he always seemed to be lonely. Since they had been de-aged to eleven, it had brought out the Italian complexion, and made him look a little livelier and healthy. There had been times when Nico slipped into Italian, so Jason wondered if being eleven triggered some memories of Italy and her language.

Jason turned his attention back to the ground. After the outcropping of rocks, footprints appeared. He figured that Percy and the others had probably ducked behind the outcropping to hide from the dinosaurs and Predators behind them, and then followed the path as they did. He wondered what had taken them so long. With Annabeth with them, Jason knew it wasn't ADHD getting them distracted.

"It's beautiful here," Piper said.

Nico took a deep breath. "Cleanest air I've ever breathed, as well."

"Well," Piper replied, "it hasn't had several thousand years of pollution to make the air dirty."

They reached the top of another rolling hill. Below them, the pine forest started to unfurl for miles. A flash of movement caught Jason's eye. ***^*^*** He squinted, staring down at the forest, really, really wishing he had his glasses. Being nearsighted sucked more than anything. ***^*^*** Another blur of movement made him refocus on the forest. The blur disappeared into the forest, but no before Jason saw the humanoid shape.

"I saw something down there," Jason said, pointed to the forest.

"There's lots of somethings down there," Piper said with an amused smile. "Trees, and more trees."

"No, I saw something move. Looked like a person." Jason insisted, motioning down the forest again.

"If they haven't come up to greet us," Nico murmured, "then more than likely they're not friendly."

"Why would anyone who isn't friendly stay around in the Cretaceous?" Jason asked. "If someone got stuck here, you'd think they wanted to get back."

"Remember what Katelle said?" Piper asked, squinting under the rays of the sun. "There are other people out there, who travel the anomalies. Theon told us himself that there was a man going around deliberately changing things."

"That means he needs to be stopped." Jason rested his hand on the hilt of his _gladius._ "If we kept him from messing anything else up, that would make our job a lot easier."

Nico looked back down at the forest. "True. You said it was only one?"

"Yeah," Jason said. "And it didn't look like you brothers. It was too small."

"A dinosaur?" Piper suggested.

"Definitely humanoid," Jason countered.

She sighed. "We should check it out, since we're here. But we can't take too long on this!"

Jason and Nico jogged down the hill, staying slightly crouched so their footsteps werw quiet and they were harder to see. At the base of the hill, the towering pines opened up for them to take in their true height. Their trunks were larger than trucks, and they went up easily a few hundred feet. The forest floor was a bed of pine needles, with low laying underbrush of ferns.

Nico and Jason crept into the forest, Piper right behind them. It was silent. There were no birds, no sounds of small animals rustling through the pine needles. It was as if there was a carnivore in the area, and all of the other animals were lying low in wait for it to pass by. As soon as the thought cross Jason's mind, he wished it hadn't.

They walked a few more feet into the forest, their footsteps as silent as the atmosphere around them. A loud thumping noise made Jason jump, and he resisted the urge to strangle it as it walked across their path, dragging it clearly _not_ broken wing behind it. He guessed it was an early Roughed Grouse-like bird, which beat its wings against logs to scare away enemies.

Nico watched the bird with little interest. He had barely blinked an eye when the thumping had started, and Jason really wanted to know how he managed to keep himself constantly steeled. Then again, if the answer was something to do with Tartarus, then Jason really didn't want to know. He was fine with jumping a little and not being scarred for life, thank you very much.

"What that the dark shape you saw?" Nico asked.

"No," Jason sighed, "I said it looked humanoid."

"Well, I don't see any humans around here." Nico muttered.

He spoke too soon.

Jason returned his eyes to the forest in front of him. He bit back a curse as his heart leapt into his throat.

There was man standing before them, poised as if he had been there the whole time. He wore black robes, which hung partially open in the front, allowing for him to move freely. His trousers and boots were also black, and dark, heavy hood obscured the top half of his face. There was a sword strapped over his shoulder, and another at his side. He had wrist bracers and a set of small throwing knives on the same shoulder as the sword.

He was armed to teeth, and was so silent that he had moved right in front of them in a period of two seconds without them hearing or noticing. Jason wasn't looking forward to getting in a fight with this guy. Thankfully, they outnumbered him three to one, so their odds looked pretty good. He just hoped the man didn't fight as good as he was silent.

"Um, hello?" Piper tried for a polite smile.

The man responded with unsheathing his swords, and advancing on them calmly.

"Guess diplomacy is out of the question," Nico grumbled.

The man suddenly jumped, lunging at Jason with incredible speed. Jason jerked back, unsheathing his _gladius_ and holding it at the ready. It was as if the shadows helped the man, making it harder and harder for Jason to see him. There was a flash of steel, and Jason brought his _gladius _up just in time to deflect the hit. The steel slammed into his sword with a stunning amount of force, nearly sending Jason careening back.

At that moment, another shadowy man appeared and jumped at Nico and Piper. Nico twisted his ring, and _Tenebris _appeared in his hand. Jason felt an electric spark run down his spine, and he smashed his sword against the other man's as hard as he could. The man flew back and hit a tree with a startled yell. A second later, he jumped right back to his feet.

An idea crossed Jason's mind. They were time traveling, and this man was in the past with him. He already knew the world was pretty messed up. Jason decided to try and explode his brain a little more with some creative morphing. He hadn't tried to change into his animagus form since he was in his sixteen year old body, but hoped that the potion would still work.

He focused, and felt his body shrink. His clothes melted into his skin, and feather sprouted. The ground got closer and closer until he was only about two feet off of it. He spread his wide, proud wings, letting out a triumphant screech, and took off into the air as a bald eagle. He circled around the man's head, and was more than a little confused to notice a total lack of surprise.

He dove at the man's face, his talon's outstretched. The man dodged at the last second, so Jason had to pull up before running into the ground. He wished Leo, or even Sirius was there. They could use a dog with claws and teeth, and a dragon would definitely do. Nico was raven, and he was fairly sure that Piper was a type of bird as well.

He landed, and changed back into a human as fast as possible. He lifted his sword, and was about to charge again with the man lifted his hand and let out a sharp whistle that resembled a hawk's. The other man, who was attacking Piper and Nico, abruptly stopped mid-jump and tucked it into a roll. He came up standing next to the original man.

Or at least, Jason thought it was the original man. They were both dressed identically, so it was impossible to tell.

"You've gotten a little slow in your old age," the man of the left said.

"Or is it young age?" The one of right suggested.

Jason frowned. Why did he recognize those voices?

"Let us make it easier," They said in unison. They pulled their low hoods back.

Jason realized that they weren't men, but kids maybe a little older than he himself before he was de-aged. Their faces were still have obscured under a mop of wildly tangled curly black hair, which looked like it hadn't been washed in ages. Their faces were dirty and marred with a few cuts and scars. Their green eyes had dark circles hanging under them.

What stood out the most was the scar on the right boy's neck, going from under his ear to his collar bone. It was jagged, as if something with claws and got him on unawares. Besides for that, if it weren't for the total lack of smiles and the sullen atmosphere around them, Jason would think . . .

"Ivan, Aiden?" Nico asked in awe.

"Well, at least someone recognizes us," Ivan and Aiden said, and for the first time since they appeared from no where, smiles lit their faces.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: Ahhh! Finally I finished this chapter! For some reason I had the _hardest_ time with this one! I was at four pages and kept scrolling up and down, trying to think of how to make it longer. Then I thought, why not pretend to have a bad guy attack and have it end up being the twins? ****And what do you think about Percy, Annabeth, Theon and Tom being in the future, with Piper, Jason and Nico in the past?**

**I think this chapter was a little shorter than the others, but don't worry. The next will make up for it. You'll be learning what Katelle's animagus form is! (And Tom'll have a small - huge - fright).**

** I said in a previous chapter that Tom's fatal fear is mosquito hawks, and there's sort of a back story to why I chose that. My little brother has a _deathly_ fear of mosquito hawks. I don't know why, but if I were to walk up behind him and say, "there's a mosquito hawk on your head", he would scream at the top of lungs and run. I once dropped a fuzz from the laundry on his back and gasped "mosquito hawk!" and literally _screamed_ and ran to mom crying. I felt kind of bad, but was laughing at the same time. So yeah. Fear of mosquito hawks totally can happen.**

**BetheBeast: I'll be putting animagus in the chapters to come, don't worry! And the demigod powers are far from forgotten. So don't worry! **

**Breakout214: I keep on having to read about how to write a proper essay. I hate it so much that I block it out from my memory every time I read about it. I hate essays, and essays hate me. I just feel so inpired about this story, so I feel like I can write and write for ages. **

**I'm going to end this author's note before it turns into a book. I guess I can sort of type as much as I talk. A lot. I'm willing to answer any questions or comments about this story, so feel free to ask!**


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter Ten**

**Who Let the Tigers In?**

Annabeth stared at the empty space in shock. In had been there one minute, and the next, it was gone. Their only way back to the others had closed right in front of them. As if that couldn't get much worse, she was stuck in the future, where monsters wandering freely with no more demigods to do the dirty work of killing them. She was tempted to ask Theon where the gods were, but she was afraid of the answer.

"Oh my gods." Percy said.

"We're going to need a place to stay," Theon said. "There's occasional wind storms that hit this place – sort of like a sand storm, only with acid sand and unbreathable air. We don't want to be caught out in one of those."

"Oh my gods," Percy repeated.

"You've been here before?" Annabeth asked.

"Are any of you freaked out by this?" Percy said incredulously. "Because I am."

"Unfortunately?" Theon said, ignoring Percy. "Yes. And I hated every second of it. I was with Ivan and Aiden at the time. That was right before we found an anomaly that took us to the Cretaceous. It was like the Garden of Eden after being stuck here for a few weeks."

"I don't suppose they have a place to get cheeseburgers here," Percy suggested.

"Cheeseburger?" Tom muttered, a lost expression on his face.

"Ah, my apprentice," Percy said, sounding more like Leo than he knew, "you see, a cheeseburger is a patty of beef, cooked, obviously, with cheese, and all put in bun with ketchup and lettuce."

"I still don't get it," Tom said, "but with the relish you say "cheeseburger" I'm guessing it tastes good."

"You have no idea," Percy said.

Annabeth rolled her eyes. "So, Theon, I suppose you know a place for us to stay?"

"Yeah, over there," Theon pointed in a general direction to their left, "there's an abandoned bunker. We camped out there for a while. There should still be some fresh water."

"So how many different times _haven't_ you gone to?" Percy asked, trying to play off his fear. "I mean, you must be an expert at this."

"Several," Theon said, "and it's alright to be afraid. I know how scary it is to be stranded in another time."

He stopped at an outcropping of rocks, not unlike the ones in the Cretaceous Period, and pointed at two trucks parked side-by-side. "There's a trap-door there that leads to a bunker. We're taking a risk going so close to the city, but there's an anomaly detecting device in there."

"Anomaly detecting device?" Annabeth asked.

"ADD?" Percy laughed.

Theon smiled, "yeah. Unfortunate acronym, but I did say there were mortals working on the anomaly thing, didn't I?"

He jumped over the outcropping, sweeping his over-grown sandy curls from his eyes. Percy shrugged and followed him. Annabeth glanced back at Tom, who seemed reluctant about walking into a wide open clearing only a few hundred meters from the city. A city, which happened to full to the brim with monsters and other creatures that might have been worse. She couldn't say she blamed him for being afraid. She had been terrified when she was on the streets, even if she had been seven.

There were a few power lines connected to telephone poles lining an ancient looking paved road. The lights were blown out, with jagged edges of glass protruding from the ground. The pavement was cracked and covered in a fine layer of sand, which made the erosion of road even worse. Paired with the abandoned city behind it, the place looked like a perfect war zone out of _Half-Life_.

The power lines looked like they were still in passable shape, and Annabeth was tempted to see what she could salvage. One never knew when electronic would come in handy, and it seemed like all those little things she picked up throughout her life always eventually came in handy. Like kite string, for example. And duct tape and bubble wrap.

Annabeth shuddered, remember the dark catacombs under Rome, where she fought Arachne.

The ground rumbled, and huge plume of dust and smoke exploded into the air behind the city. It continued to rise in a semi-circle throughout the chasm around the city, howling with intensity. Annabeth frowned, squinting at the dirt. What was it? She wondered if it was one of the storms Theon had been talking about. If that was the case, they needed to get out there fast.

"Quick!" Theon shouted. "Wind storm!"

Annabeth jumped over the rocks, with Tom following behind her. She held her dagger out, and Tom had his wand in hand, although she didn't know what he would do with it, since he hadn't even had one defense class to learn defense spells. He might have read about some spells, but she wasn't sure if reading from the book would transition into a perfect working spell.

Percy uncapped Riptide, and the full-length bronze sword leapt out, gleaming slightly in the dim light. Tom gaped at the leaf-shaped Celestial bronze blade in shock. "I know I shouldn't be surprised by this anymore," he said, "but that is impossible."

"Dude," Percy said, "you just got sorted by a hat, and before that you watched a brick wall move into a doorway. Don't forget the fact we walked through a wind chime into the past, and then the future."

Annabeth tugged Percy along with her on their way to the bunker. Percy frowned, "now that I think about it, it gives me a headache. Tom, do your head a favor and just nod and accept it. It's much less painful."

"If you guys don't hurry up," Theon called, "you're going to have much worse than a headache."

Tom suddenly yelped and was thrown off his feet, landing on his back a few feet away from Annabeth and Percy. He tried to sit up, but a blur of gray swept by and he was knocked down again, his head smacking on a piece of metal jutting from the ground. The front of his shirt had torn rips in it, from where whatever it was that was circling them attacked him. Annabeth didn't see any blood, but he looked dazed.

The creature stopped moving, landing directly in front of Tom. It looked like a mosquito hawk that took steroids, went through Navy Seal training, and got a silicon fang enhancement. It's transparent wings buzzed on its back erratically, as if it had no control of them, and its long spindly legs reminded Annabeth a lot of a sp – you know what? She wasn't going to think about that.

Percy started to charge forward, yelling, "hey, lawyer impersonator, eat Riptide!", but another monster landed behind Tom, its fanged mouth hovering close to his neck.

"Stop!" Theon hissed, darted forward and grabbed Percy's arm. "They've taken him "hostage". These guys are really smart. We'll have to trick them somehow."

Of course, Tom chose that moment to wake up and see his literal worst nightmare hovering above his face. Annabeth remembered that Tom was as afraid of mosquito hawks as she was of spiders, if not more afraid. One of the little monsters had once flew around him at Wool's Orphanage, and he had nearly killed himself trying to get away.

The young Slytherin demigod paled dramatically, his entire body freezing as if he had been petrified by Medusa. He whimpered out, "help!"

"Stay still," Theon instructed. He looked up at the horizon, where the acid wind was getting stronger. They didn't have long. "I'll distract them into the city, and see if I can find Katelle. She needs shelter, if she's here."

"We don't know if she's here," Annabeth murmured. "That's suicide, as you've said _several_ times before."

"Help!" Tom whispered again.

"Okay," Percy said, "so you're the futuristic monster expert. What do we do?"

"We can't move, for one," Theon said. "As soon as they detect a threat, they'll bite Tom, and believe me, you do _not_ want that to happen."

Annabeth scanned the immediate area and set her eyes on the electrical wires. If they still could conduct electricity well enough. . . hmm.

Annabeth started to back away slowly, edging toward the bottom of one of the poles. The creatures hissed warningly, but didn't attack. Tom began to come to grips with the situation, and did the most logical thing one would do while they were surrounded by giant mosquito hawks. He freaked out. He started to scramble away, but the creature stabbed it's front legs into his shoulders, pinning him to the ground. Tom let out a yell, a mixture of fear and pain.

The telephone pole was rotted, but she power box at the top looked like it was still intact. Percy and Theon finally noticed she was gone, barely managing to peel their eyes away from the struggling Tom. Annabeth was sure she only had a few more seconds before Percy couldn't take it anymore and charged in, plan or no, and Tom turned into insect food. Or insect mush, she realized, depending on how they ate. She decided to block her train of thoughts after that.

She pressed her hands onto the rotten wood of the telephone wood doubtfully. She really didn't think the pole was going to carry her weight, even as a small eleven year old. She glanced over at Theon. Even though he was technically a year older physically, he literally hadn't grown an inch since she last saw him, and he was thinner. Percy was scrawny, but he had put on muscle mass with his training at the orphanage.

She glanced at the horizon again. It was only a matter of time before the wind storm exploded and started to ravage the city and the area around it. It was swirling up, like a giant demonic tornado, debris and sand whipping around.

"Theon," she said in a low voice, "I need you help."

Theon walked toward her as slow as he could – which was a feat, considering he liked to run everywhere – and looked up at the power box. "Are thinking what I think you are?"

"Electricity," Annabeth said. "It's perfect."

"It's crazy." Theon said. "How is it going to work?"

"Trust me. I need you to climb up there to the power box and open it." She went to instruct him on what levers to pull and wires to mess with. She knew this was incredibly dangerous, and she hoped Theon had the sense to jump down if something went wrong . . .

"What – what are you doing?" Tom's voice sounded very small.

"Electricity," Annabeth called back.

"How does that help me?" Tom yelled, which made the mosquito hawk give out a gurgling sound. "I can't take this anymore!"

Tom grabbed the mosquito hawk's legs and tried to pull them out of his shoulders, only to make the creature angry. Just as Annabeth was going to tell Theon to start climbing, a loud _POP!_ cut her off. A stream of electricity arched from Tom's hands to the creature's legs, which probably didn't feel very good for the monster. It wailed and pulled away quickly, taking up into the sky, its wings blowing up sand.

The first monster, which had been guarding the other, took off after its companion. Tom leapt to his feet and ran over to them, his legs nearly giving out. His face was still ashen, and his ocean-colored eyes were wide. He stared at the place he had nearly been eaten a few moments ago in a mixture of shock, terror, and disbelief.

"For the record," Tom finally said, "I want one of those swords. As soon as possible, preferably."

An explosion shook the air. Off on the horizon, the wind storm doubled its size. It started to howl their way, tearing over the city and surrounding desert. Tom snapped out of the shock first, to Annabeth's surprise, and started to shove them towards the bunker between the trucks. Theon took this as his roll call to drag them along at speeds about twenty miles an hour too fast for their legs. They stopped at the trucks, but Annabeth couldn't see the entrance of a bunker.

"Where is it?" Tom asked. His forehead was covering in a sheen of sweat, and there were two dark dark spots – albeit small – of blood on his shoulders. Annabeth figured he had been in shock, and now the wounds were starting to catch up to him.

Theon knelt and bent his head so he could look under the truck on the right. "It's under the truck!"

"You said it was _between_ –" Tom started.

"I know!" Theon interrupted. "Something moved the truck over the manhole. It could have been the wind, or a monster fighting and bumped into it, or –"

"No time!" Percy shoved against the truck, pushing with all of his strength.

Annabeth and Theon joined him, while Tom weakly pushed against the door of the vehicle. "What kind of automobile is this anyway?"

Theon suddenly stopped, looked behind him at the storm that was only seconds away. "We don't have time for this."

He hit the ground and crawled under the truck, prying his caduceus under the manhole and lifted the heavy metal up. "This is going to be very uncomfortable. Hurry up!"

Percy nudged Tom to go, and he complied. Tom slipped under the truck and fell into the manhole with a startled yell. A few moments later, while Annabeth was crawling under, she heard Tom yell up, "you could have warned me about the height of this bunker!"

Annabeth lowered her legs into the hole, feeling like she was in the catacombs of Rome again, and dropped down. This time, however, she landed right and didn't twist her ankle. She was ever so grateful about that. She looked up at the manhole, just as a violent gust of wind swept over the hole, followed by thick sand and debris.

"Percy!" She called. "Theon! Come on!"

Percy suddenly dropped in, and Theon slid in after him. Theon had to precariously hang from one hand while moving the heavy metal cover of the manhole in place. He let himself fall just in time so he didn't crush his hand when the lid fell in place, landing gracefully on the smoothly paved flooring. His shoes scuffed against the sand that blew in while the lid was open, which ruined the stealth part of landing.

They stood in a dark bunker, with shelves full of bins, and a separate door that was slightly ajar on the other side of the room. There was an open cabinet with medical supplies, which looked like it had been recently rummaged through. There were several trunks stacked against the wall next to the door, with one opened apart from the rest. It showed an assortment of guns, bullet magazines and tranquillizer darts.

Percy dissolved into a fit of coughing next to her, slumping against one of the shelves that had clear vials that seemed to be filled with water. Theon started coughing similarly, and headed toward the vials. He opened one and tasted it, and then spat it out, making a disgusted face. He fumbled through a few more vials in the same bin before tossing it over his shoulder.

"Wh – what are you doing?" Tom asked. He was sight for sore eyes. His skin was sickly gray and he shivered with almost uncontrollable violence. Through the punctured part of his shirt, his wound was turning an interesting shade of yellow and green.

"Looking for clean water," Theon muttered, before bursting in another bout of coughing. He tossed another bin over his shoulder. "There has to be _some_ left . . . yes!"

He swallowed a gulp of water and carried the bin down to them. "This is clean water."

"Can't – breathe!" Percy wheezed.

Theon opened vial and handed it to Percy. "Drink this. It'll heal you, because, you know, Poseidon. And it's good for you."

Percy downed the water and his breathing started to turn normal. He grinned lopsidedly. "Thanks."

"Who let in the tigers?" Tom whispered in a daze, pointing behind them.

Theon shot to his feet, in time to see a huge _Velociraptor_ turn towards him, its mouth open and its curious blue-gray-green eyes bright. Its large claw clicked against the floor, and plumed feathers spiked up on its back like haunches on a dog. It hissed, it muscles tensing as it coiled to strike. Theon darted to the open trunk of weapons and pulled out a handgun that was loaded, and cocked the weapon, aiming at the _Velociraptor._

The _Velociraptor _suddenly stopped moving, its muscles relaxing. It back away, making clicking and hollow honking calls. Annabeth stared at the dinosaurin awe. It was looking at a Paleontological legend. The _Velociraptor_ was the perfect killing machine, quick, intelligent, ruthless, but not like the monsters outside. It didn't kill for fun. Well, as far as she knew, at least.

Theon took the gun out of safety mode, re-aiming.

The _Velociraptor_ let out a startled sound, and its scales started to melt away, turning into pale skin. The plumed feathers on its head laid plat and grew into honey colored hair streaked with bright colors. The rest of the scales formed a leather jacket and trousers, the claws shrinking into black leather boots. In a few seconds, a girl with blonde hair, blue-gray-green eyes, and pale skin stood before them, holding her hands up in surrender.

"Whoa! Watch where you point that thing!"

"Katelle?" Tom asked blearily. "You're a tiger? That explains so much." He slumped over and collapsed to the ground in a heap.

Katelle looked at him in pity. "He's seen better days. Am I right?"

"You're a _Velociraptor_ animagus?" Annabeth asked in awe. "How?"

Katelle shrugged. "Don't know. Are you guys going to help him? What happened?"

"We followed you," Theon said a bit sharply, "and he got stabbed by one of those giant mosquito hawks."

"Ahh," Katelle nodding knowingly. "He's caught lawyer-itus."

"Not the time to joke!" Annabeth exclaimed, examining Tom's shoulder wounds. "It's really bad. What do we do?"

Theon crouched next to Tom and winced when he saw the wound. "Anyone got any leftover ambrosia?"

Katelle shook her head. "I used my only block on this," she opened her jacket and showed a deep claw gash across her collar bone.

"I've got this," Percy said doubtfully. He held out a small piece of ambrosia. "I know this stuff does miracles, but I don't know if it will be enough."

Katelle pulled back the edges of Tom's shirt near the wounds. She reached for her backpack and said, "anything will be fine for this. It's pretty bad."

"It it poisoned?" Annabeth asked.

"Venom," Katelle corrected. "The mosquito looking things have it all over their bodies. Be happy they didn't bite him. He'd be dead by now."

She snatched the ambrosia from Percy and nudged it into Tom's mouth. "Eat, eat. It's good tasting. Eat it. Now." Tom responded, coming out of unconsciousness and swallowed the ambrosia. "Good boy. I really hope Annabeth and Percy are right about you being a demigod, or you are going to be incinerated in a few seconds."

That brought Tom out of his daze quickly. "Wait – what?"

Katelle snorted, pawing through her backpack. "Nothing." She brought our a Ziploc bag full of dried moss. She grabbed one of the vials from Theon's bin. "Are these pure?"

"Yeah," he answered.

She popped open the vial and shoved the moss in, using her knife to crush the dried greenery up. The liquid turned thick, with a dull green color. She held her knife up above the mixture and watched the liquid drip down slowly. She wiped her knife off on her trousers and slipped it back into her boot and dipped her fingers into the vial.

She spread a thick glob of the potion on Tom's shoulder, and then did the same to the other puncture wound. The potion sank into his skin, staining it light green and healing the wound around the edges immediately. She continued until she used the entire vial on the wounds, and the capped the vial and tossed it in her backpack. When she noticed them looking at her strangely, she shrugged.

"You never know when that stuff we be useful. The watered down stuff makes an excellent energy drink." She slung her pack over her shoulder. "He should be feeling better in a few minutes. This stuff works miracles."

"That is disgusting," Theon muttered.

"You sure you're not a daughter of Apollo?" Percy joked, his voice a little raspy from the air above.

"Last I checked," she said.

"I've figured out that we're in the future," Annabeth said, trying to get them back on topic. "But how did this happen? What went wrong?"

Katelle slid down the wall, resting her elbow on her knee and leaving the other leg outstretched. "Us. _We_ went wrong. The anomalies hold a great amount of power, and a few scientists wanted to control that. They wanted to create a clean, boundless energy source for the world."

"And that's wrong?" Annabeth asked without thinking. "How did _clean_ energy do this?"

Katelle pulled her knife from her boot, fiddling with it for a few seconds before continuing. "We ruined a balance of nature. A Conversion of anomalies, where multiple anomalies opened up worldwide. There was so much energy, that it could last forever."

"But what went wrong?" Annabeth asked desperately. She motioned above her. "What caused this to happen?"

"I don't know!" Katelle laughed humorlessly. "Don't you think I would have changed it beforehand if I knew? All I know is that someone – I don't know who – messed with the Conversion. They redirected the energy, and it exploded on them. It turned into a magnet for energy and power, sucking everything from the earth. It's the reason the wind is so bad up there."

"The Conversions are natural, though?" Annabeth tried to clarify for herself. Her brain was in turmoil. Conversion, science, and time travel was all starting to blur in an unintelligible mess.

"Yeah." Katelle muttered. "If we can reset the time line, put everything back into place, this will never happen."

"How can we just change time like that?" Theon asked. "Couldn't that make really bad things happen?"

Katelle jabbed her finger up. "It can't get any worse than this, I'm afraid."

"Where are the gods?" Percy asked. Annabeth almost jumped. Percy had been uncharacteristically quiet the entire time she, Theon and Katelle were talking.

"They faded." It was the answer Annabeth had dreaded, yet expected. "There's only a few left. Poseidon, Hades, Hermes, Ares and Artemis."

"Artemis?" Annabeth asked. "Does that mean –"

"I don't know if Thalia's still alive here." Katelle said. "She could have died a long time ago. The only reason Artemis is still alive is . . . well, I really don't know why. She's tough, and there's still monsters to hunt, I suppose."

"Dad . . . is still here?" Percy looked extremely relieved.

Something struck Annabeth. Athena was no longer there. Annabeth had never had the best relationship with her mom, but now . . . Athena was gone? The goddess of wisdom and battle strategy had lost the will to go on? No matter how much Annabeth wanted to deny it, she couldn't. This wasn't a world Athena could bear to live in. There was nothing but chaos, no order, no wisdom, strategy, or anything of higher intellect.

Percy reached over and took Annabeth's hand comfortingly. Annabeth smiled sadly at him in response, trying not to feel too depressed. They would fix this, one way or another.

"Tigers!" Tom's eyes flew open and he sat up with a gasp. "Jungle – tigers –"

"There's no tigers, Tom," Katelle said with amusement.

"Are you sure?" Tom asked. His face was still pale, but not a pasty and death-like as it was before. "I saw . . . I know I saw –"

"You saw me in my animagus form," Katelle said. "And I'm a _velociraptor,_ not a tiger, thank you very much."

Tom seemed to mull in over in his head for a second. Finally he said, "Nah. It was a tiger."

Katelle shook her head. "Okay. I wasn't a _velociraptor._ I was a tiger."

Tom's eyes started to droop again. "A pretty _velociraptor._ Nice . . . eyes." His eyes closed and he fell back into a deep sleep.

Now Katelle looked a little worried. "Am I a tiger or a raptor? And he's reacting to the venom more than I thought."

Theon cackled with absolute delight, "keep telling yourself that."

"Oh shut up," She muttered, rolling her eyes.

"Tommy's got a crush!" Theon sang in falsetto.

"Real mature." Katelle deadpanned without interest. "Don't we have better things to worry about?"

"There's always time for everything," Theon said airily.

"Oh please!" Katelle said, rummaging through her pack. "I'll kill the shrimp when he wakes up. That's enough immaturity for the decade. When the wind stops, we're going to have to find a way to get back to a decent time."

"What are you thinking?" Theon asked. "Go-Go Gadget anomaly?"

She pulled her iPod from her pack. "Something like that."

* * *

><p><strong>AN: Soooo sorry for the long wait! I was distracted by designing my Halloween costume...I'll try to update sooner next time. Maybe after Halloween or something. I also got distracted by a story idea that hit me in face. I'm not focusing on it right now (kind of something I do on the side) but a PJ&O and Assassin's Creed. Or something like that. I'm insane, I know. C'mon! You gotta admit that would be awesome! **

**(Mild spoilers for BoO ahead, tread at your own risk)**

**Theon Azul: The plot gods demanded that Jason's glasses be missing! Don't blame at me!**


	11. Chapter 11

**Chapter Eleven**

**The Mid-Life Crisis**

"Y-you –" Piper spluttered. "You could have killed us!"

Ivan grinned, shifting from one foot to another as if he wasn't used to standing still for so long. "I wasn't going to kill you, duh."

"You could have convinced me better," Jason grumbled. He grinned widely, unable to keep it off anymore. "It's good you see you two safe."

Nico suddenly engulfed Aiden in a hug, and then grabbed Ivan for the same treatment. Both boys – Piper wasn't sure boys was the right term anymore – gave a start of surprise from the sudden contact. They both laughed and patted Nico's back. When Nico separated, his face was stern and commanding. Piper had only seen that face a few times, and usually it was directed at Will Solace. Most prevalent when Will crossed over Nico's personal space barriers.

"I forbid you two to ever disappear again," Nico said, pointed his finger at each of them in turn. "I was terrified for you, and I had absolutely no way if you were alive! All Theon said was that you distracted a bunch of dino –"

"Is Theon alright?" Aiden asked, cutting Nico off.

Bad move.

"Did I look finished?" Nico snapped. Piper was forcibly reminded of a mother hen.

The twins shook their heads simultaneously, and just like that they were reverted to nervous puppies being scolded by their big brother. Nico continued with his lecture, " – saurs, and then that was it. You could have died, for all I knew! Theon's fine, by the way. And then you show up in the middle of Cretaceous and attack us! You are _never_ allowed to go anywhere out of my line a sight again for a period longer than _never_ unless I, and two other people, give you explicit permission to."

Nico paused to take a breath. Piper half-expected Ivan and Aiden to started bartering with their alone time, but was surprised when Aiden asked, "why two other people as well?"

"In case you manage to actually convince me," Nico said stubbornly. "The two other will be able to overturn me."

Ivan turned to Piper and Jason. "Sorry, can't help you guys. We're grounded."

Jason snorted. "Go Nico."

Aiden crossed his arms. "I'll have you know, we can take care of ourselves _just_ fine."

"I don't doubt it," Nico admitted, "but I still want to – _what it name of the gods happened to your finger?!_"

Ivan held up his hand. His index finger was missing entirely. "Um . . . I lost it? It ran away. Honest."

Piper's mouth fell open. She ran forward and grabbed his hand, holding up to the light as if to check for any tricks. She couldn't see anything that struck her prank-like, and between Sirius, Leo and Theon, she had gotten good at it. There was nothing but . . . well, nothing. It was kind of gross looking, but it was a clean scar. It hadn't been bitten off.

"How?" Nico demanded, still staring at where his brother's finger used to be.

Ivan extracted his hand from Piper's grip and scratched his head nervously. "Um, how to explain?"

"Dark ages," Aiden mumbled. "I tripped and accidentally poked a guy's eye out with my knife."

"They were going to take one of our eyes," Ivan mused.

"We convinced them to take both of our index fingers instead," Aiden held up an identically missing finger.

"Using our incredible powers of persuasion, of course," Ivan said with a cocky grin.

Jason sighed in disappointment, and said sadly, "so much for being able to tell you two apart."

"Jason!" Piper protested.

"They're alright," Ivan said. "Besides, it gives us room to have these beauties." He tapped the wrist brace, and a knife shot out. It took up the place where their fingers used to be, serving as a much deadlier substitute. The Celestial bronze blade gleamed, and they pretended to punch something. The knife stuck out so that if they actually did punch something, they would skewer it. If Piper ignored the missing finger, it was pretty useful.

Jason gaped. "Oh, man, I want one!"

Nico scowled, and glared at them darkly. "Are you sure that story about the guy's eye being poked out was made up to explain how you two mangled your fingers with those things?"

They shifted uncomfortably. "No?"

"You guys are really losing the lying talents," Jason said with a grin. "No more tricking, huh? Looks like your pranking days are over, assassin."

They both jumped simultaneously. "What?" Their voices sounded slightly strangled.

Jason rolled his eyes. "Oh, come on. I know _Assassin's Creed_ getup when I see it. Right down to the blade. Are you sure you guys didn't just chop off your own fingers to have it?"

They grinned. "We couldn't resist the outfits."

Ivan said indignantly, "and we did _not_ chop off our own fingers!"

"So what are you three doing in this time period?" Aiden asked, abruptly changing the subject. It sounded as if he was asking, _so, what brings you here to this cafe?_

That brought Piper back to the present. "Percy, Annabeth, Tom and Katelle disappeared into the anomaly that brought us here a while ago. We've been looking for them."

"Did you try the huge pack of Predators chasing Katelle?" Ivan asked flatly. "I'm pretty sure she went in a general that way direction." He pointed to the hill they had run down to reach the forest.

"You saw Katelle getting chased by Predators," Jason asked slowly, "and you didn't help?"

They snorted and said, "looked like she was handling it just fine."

Aiden snickered. "Never seen her run that fast, though."

"Whoa, slow down," Piper held up her hands. "You guys know Katelle?"

She had shifted into uncomfortable territory again. "It's hard to explain. She's traveled to a lot of times, so your chances of bumping into her are higher than you'd think."

"So you guys know her?" Jason asked.

Was it just her imagination, or was Aiden turning red? It was hard to tell under that mop of hair.

Ivan's face was splitting with a grin. "I'm not so sure about me, but –"

"Oh, shut up," Aiden snapped.

Jason looked back and forth between them. "It must be hereditary for Riddles to like her."

"I don't know what he sees –"

"Ugh, I will stab you," Aiden threatened Ivan. Then he caught on to what Jason said. "Wait, what?"

"Tom likes her." Jason deadpanned.

"Tom?" Aiden asked. "Who is Tom?"

"So you can assassinate him?" Ivan cackled devilishly. He was enjoying this _so_ much. Piper was going to have to find a way to put him in his place.

Aiden aimed another death glare at Ivan. "For the last time, would you _shut up?_"

"Tom as in Tom Riddle," Nico said. "Your good ole granddaddy? Dark lord supreme? Easily riled eleven year old? Is terrified of mosquito hawks? Ringing any bells?

The twins turned pale. "You're messing with _Tom Riddle's_ life?"

Now Piper felt like shifting around. "Well, it was the only time rupture we could reach with Katelle's help . . ."

"_Tom Riddle?_" Ivan asked again. "Well, it certainly explains a few things."

"Like what?" Piper asked.

"Nothing important," Aiden grumbled. "You're messing with Voldemort's childhood."

For some reason, Piper felt like defending Tom. "He's only a kid. And he's actually not a bad kid, if you get past his quirks."

"You mean the quirks that made him a dark lord?" Ivan asked, raising an eyebrow.

"I don't even know how he turned into a dark lord," Piper admitted. "He seems . . . well, a little reclusive, and not used to having people care about him, but all in all he's not a bad kid. He just needed guidance, I think."

Aiden snorted, "_How to Not Be an Evil Dark Lord 101_. I can see it."

Ivan shook his head. "We can't worry about that right now. The time rupture has been fixed here, which means the anomaly to the next time will be closing soon."

"Like how soon?" Nico asked. They were at least a half mile's walk from the anomaly.

"Like . . . now." Ivan held up a little square device that looked like a miniature version of Katelle's ADD. "It's gone."

Aiden looked over his shoulder. "Are you kidding? It was going strong only a few seconds ago!"

"I don't know," Ivan mumbled, shaking the device. "But it's closed."

"We're stuck here?" Piper asked in shock. "Like, actually stuck here?"

"Don't panic," Aiden said, holding out his hand in a 'calm down' gesture. "We've been stuck in the Cretaceous – and a bunch of other places – before. The anomaly will open again."

Ivan shoved the device into one of the many belt pockets he had. "The hardest part is getting to a time that has a rupture in it."

"Huh?" Jason looked completely baffled.

Piper shook her head. Jason was having a Percy moment. The thought of Percy sent of wave of worry through her. "Can that thing pick all anomalies within . . . I don't know, planet distance?"

Ivan snorted as if what she said amused him. "No, it only shows within a ten mile radius. It does that so that we're not teased by the other anomalies opening up around the planet."

"Were there any other anomalies?" She asked.

"No, why?"

She sighed. "We're here because Katelle, Percy, Tom, Annabeth and Theon disappeared into this anomaly. Katelle said she thought there was another one open in this time, which was allowing creatures –"

"From the future to get into the past, and then into the 30's," Ivan sighed. "Of course."

"I am so sick of time travel," Aiden said, throwing his hands in the air. He turned around, massaging his forehead. Then he turned back around and blurted, "we could try to open one!"

Ivan looked at him as if he had grown two heads. "That it. Now I _know_ the desert got to you."

"No!" Aiden protested. "Remember what Helen Cutter did – don't ask, it's a long story – when she had that thing?"

Ivan pulled the device out again. "She opened an anomaly. But we don't know how to do that!"

Aiden gave him a flat look. "Uh huh. And since when have we stopped figuring stuff out ourselves?"

Ivan gave the device a critical look. "True. And the controls seem fairly to the point . . . If I could take it apart without ruining it, then I –"

"Great!" Jason said cheerfully. "You can figure it out in your head, right? Because my head's hurting enough as it is, let alone listening to technical things about technology."

Piper sighed. Jason was turning into Percy more and more every day.

Ivan looked around at the sky. "I'm just worried about the asteroid . . ."

"The _what?_" Nico asked. He had been standing there, staring at Ivan and Aiden's missing fingers, before falling into his usual listening silence.

"You know," Aiden said casually, "The asteroid that almost wipes out all life on Earth?"

"What about it?" Piper asked, a bit nervously.

"Well, if this thing is right," Ivan said, shaking the device like a TV remote, "then we landed at around the time the asteroid struck Earth. There's speculation and debates on the actual year – this takes place in the future, by the way – but they can't confirm it other than this one-hundred year radius."

Jason relaxed. "That's good, right? I mean, a hundred years is a large span of time."

Aiden bit his lip, cringing. "I don't know . . . we're kind of in the last five years of that one hundred year radius."

" . . . Oh."

"Yeah."

Nico clapped his hands. "I guess that means you guys need to start figuring that thing out!"

They stood there in silence for a few awkward moments while the twins part tried to figure out the device, part fought over it. They didn't seem to be getting anywhere. From what Piper could tell from their muttering, they had discovered the device in the future and snatched it without thinking about trying to find an instruction manual in their haste. Something about police and twins being illegal.

Piper shivered as a breeze passed through the forest. In the sun, she had been warm, but it was much colder in the forest. Maybe it was just that she was frightened, since she was stuck in a time before even the first humans had walked the Earth. With the exception of the twins, Nico and Jason, she was utterly alone. Her _dad_ wouldn't be born for several million years! What if they changed something back in this time, which completely altered the future?

Then she thought of something she hadn't before: they were directly changing Tom Riddle's past. What if they went back, and found out that Ivan and Aiden were never born? Piper hadn't felt so overwhelmed since the battle with Gaea. It seemed like every time they saved the world, it just fell to pot again as soon as they tried to have a little peace.

It was as if Aiden could read her mind. "Don't worry about Riddle's future and stuff. That's already been changed past the point of no return."

"What is that supposed to mean?" Nico asked.

"It means –"

"I can't get it to work!" Ivan snapped irritably.

"Not what I was going to say," Aiden mumbled.

"How the bloody hell did _Helen Cutter_, a deranged psychopath who left her husband for eight years for a tour of the Precambrian Era, figure this out, and I can't?" Ivan shook the device again.

"Who is Helen Cutter?" Jason asked quietly, not wanting to set off the temper of the son of Hades.

Aiden watched his twin with a similar pensive fashion. He shuddered when he heard the name 'Helen Cutter'. "She's not someone you want to meet, that's for sure. She makes Katelle look like a sane newborn puppy."

"That's . . . an interesting image," Jason replied.

During the time they had been talking, the sun had started to dip towards the horizon. Ivan finally shoved the device back into his pocket. "We're going to need get to shelter for the night."

"There's a cave up ahead," Aiden said. "It's a little climb to the opening, but it has a nice view and it offers sufficient protection."

"Don't dinosaurs sleep?" Piper asked as they followed the twins deeper into the forest.

Ivan shrugged. "Some do. Others are more nocturnal. I'm mostly worried about the _pterosaurs."_

"_Pterosaurs?_" Nico raised an eyebrow.

"Think piranhas," Aiden explained, "only with wings. And traveling in packs of hundreds."

"Oh." Evidently, the Cretaceous Period wasn't a very hospitable place.

"Is that how you lost –"

"_No!_" The twins both shouted.

Nico scowled. "I still think you aren't telling the truth."

"To the cave!" Ivan said, swiftly changing the subject.

The scenery didn't change much with the trek. The tall pines rose up into the sky, swaying and groaning in the wind, which was steadily intensifying. The formerly crystal clear blue sky was covered in a gray overcast, signifying that it would probably storm later. The underbrush almost reached Piper's shoulders sometimes, brushing against her chin a few times and making her hope that there were no huge prehistoric insects.

"You should have saw this centipede that Aiden got stung by," Ivan rattled off another story that made Piper cringe. "He was turning purple and blue before we managed to get him to a hospital and they made an antidote with a venom sample."

"You know," Aiden said sulkily, "that was kind of a traumatic experience for me. You could be a little less insensitive."

"He foaming in the mouth," Ivan added cheerfully.

"I did not need to know that," Jason said.

Ivan, Aiden and Jason fell back into silence, absentmindedly hacked at the underbrush as they walked, which made Piper cringe. _Hack_. There goes the Sear's Tower. _Chop._ President George Washington was never born. Okay, so maybe she was being a little dramatic, but she was afraid that they might chop the plant that was discovered in the future, which prevented someone special from finding it and being inspired, which prevented . . .

She decided to stop thinking.

When they finally reached their destination, Piper saw the "small climb" and glared at the twins. It was more like a two-hundred foot cliff-side. Luckily, it was jagged with plenty of hand and footholds, which would make ascent easy. She supposed that after climbing the lava wall at Camp Half-Blood, this shouldn't have been a problem, but she was worried about the _pterosaurs_ that Ivan and Aiden had spoken about on the way to the cave.

"Small climb, huh?" Jason asked.

Aiden grinned and looked up at the cave opening. "It's pretty fun, once you get used to the height."

"Speak for yourself," Ivan muttered.

Nico dissolved into shadows and appeared at the top, inspecting his hands innocently. Jason wrapped his arms around Piper and gently took off into the air. Ignoring the twin's protests, he willed the wind currents to take them up a little quicker. The pressure of the wind was like a geyser under them, pushing them up, but it wasn't very stable. In a few minutes they had risen to the same level as the cave entrance, thankfully without being thrown off by rogue currents.

"Hey!" Aiden shouted, "You're taking all the fun out of it!"

"Only you would be crazy enough to actually like climbing," Nico replied.

Ivan grabbed his brother's arm and they melted into the shadows, similarly to Nico. A second later, they appeared in the cave with Piper, Jason and Nico. Aiden scowled and snapped something in a foreign language. It didn't sound like Russian, which was their favorite language next to English, or ancient Greek. Although, Piper thought it sounded somewhat familiar.

Then it clicked. "Arabic? When did you learn that?"

They gave her a mournful look. "It's amazing what you can do when you're stuck in Syria during the twelfth century, and you want water."

Jason sat down down, his back pressed against the cave wall. A second later he thought better of it, since the harsh stone was unforgiving on his back. Ivan leaned against the wall, his back apparently spared by the thick robes. He pulled out the device and started fiddling with it again, shaking it and flicking the screen.

Piper snorted in amusement. "I don't think shaking it is going to help. You already done that."

"About a hundred times," Jason added for her.

"Have you tried taking the battery out and putting it back in?" Nico suggested offhandedly.

Ivan shot an _are you serious? _look at Nico and said, "you can't just _take the battery_ out of these."

Nico shrugged. "Just saying."

"It won't turn on!" Ivan huffed irritably. "How did –"

Aiden snatched the device from Ivan and pulled a small chip from the bottom, and then put it back it. He handed it back to Ivan, saying, "now try it."

Ivan scowled and tapped the screen, and then his mouth dropped open as the clear glass top half lit up. Aiden couldn't keep the smug smirk off his face, and got a swift punch as a response.

"Can you get it to work?" Piper asked.

Ivan opened his mouth, and then closed it. "Um . . . maybe?"

"Translation," Nico said a bit snidely, "no."

"Where's Leo when you need him," Ivan grumbled as he tapped at the screen.

"85 million years in the future," Aiden deadpanned.

"Rhetorical question," Ivan snapped.

Piper glanced out the cave opening. The sky had gone dark, and the only light was from the device in Ivan's hands. "Maybe you should get some sleep," she suggested. "You might be able to think better in the morning."

Ivan ran a hand through his tangled hair, cringing when he hit a tangle hard. If Piper had a comb on hand, she would have forced them to comb their hair. "I guess . . . I'll take –"

"_I'll_ take the first watch," Aiden said sternly. "Since you're infamous for not waking people up for their turns."

"But –"

"Guys!" Piper called, waving her arms. "How about I take first watch, then Jason then Nico? You two both look like you need a full night's rest."

They looked ready to protest, but Jason jumped in a backed Piper. "She's right. You look like you haven't gotten a full sleep in forever."

They both sat down, leaning against the cave wall. Piper still couldn't get over how hard it was to tell them apart. At least with Fred and George Weasley, or Connor and Travis Stoll, one was taller than the other. Ivan and Aiden were both the _same_ height, both too skinny, and both had the same hair and eye shade. They had always been thin, but the past few months hadn't helped. Piper wondered if it was a son of Hades trait to eventually become as small and pale as a wraith.

Nico had already started to lose his olive complexion, due to the lack of sun in England his outright refusal to do anything outside (example: Quidditch, although Piper didn't blame him for that one). He had been told by many people in the 30's that he needed a haircut, since the shaggy longish style hadn't hit the fashion in that time. Not that Nico was trying to look that way on purpose, he just didn't like to let anyone close enough to give him a haircut.

Piper turned to ask the twins a question about ancient Syria, but found them both passed out on the stone floor. Aiden hugged his sword to his chest, and Ivan was clutching a dagger in his left hand, the device in his right one. She shook her head with a slightly amused smile. So much for her once-in-a-lifetime history lesson of ancient times.

Jason raised his eyebrows at the twins. "I suppose this means it's nighty night time?"

Nico made a grunting noise and closed his eyes, apparently deciding to go to sleep right then and there.

"Go to sleep, Pipes," Jason urged. "I'll wake you in a few hours for the next shift."

Piper would have argued, but she was exhausted. "Sounds good," she said and took off her snowboarding jacket as a pillow for her head.

Unfortunately, sleep for demigods meant dreams.

Piper had hoped, somehow, that she would be spared from dreams for this once, but she had no luck. She should have known that, being stuck in the past – well, even farther in the past – that her dreams would be worse than usual. It seemed like when she really, really wanted no dreams, she ended up getting extra annoying and frightening dreams. This time was no exception.

As soon as she fell asleep, she found herself standing in a gray room. The walls, floor, and ceiling were all cemented, and it was lit by a single light bulb hanging by a chain in the center of the room. There was one door, with no knob, meaning that it only opened from the outside. There were cracks in the floor, and a few random news papers scattered around. A coffee table with two chairs sat under the light bulb.

A cloaked man sat in one chair, and a small girl sat in the other. Despite being bruised, cut, battered and scared, the girl glared fiercely at the man. She had long honey-blond hair braided down her back, with large blue-green eyes. There was something familiar about the way she was glaring at the cloaked man, something that made Piper think of . . .

"Are you ready to tell me?" The cloaked man asked softly.

The girl grabbed her braid, swinging it dangerously. Piper had never seen someone make swinging a braid in a circle deadly looking, but this girl managed it. The heavy-looking stone ring tied in the braid at the end might have helped as well. "What makes you think I'll ever talk?"

The door was pushed open, and a bald man wearing a business suit walked in, whispered something in the cloaked man's ear, and then walked out smoothly.

The cloaked man sat a little taller, leaning across the table menacingly. "I think you might have enough reason to talk sooner than later."

The girl bristled angrily. "What's that supposed to mean, _Draven __Thorne_._" _

"Throwing names around, Mara Sparrow?" The cloaked man, Draven Thorne, asked. There was a smirk in his tone. "You of all people know how dangerous that is."

_Mara Sparrow?_ Did that mean she was related to Katelle in anyway? After Draven Thorne had said it, Piper had immediately seen why Mara seemed so familiar. Her hair and eyes were the same color as Katelle's, and her glare was just as fierce. She was even dressed similarly, in a leather jacket with an empty gun holster on her hip. Katelle had never mentioned anything about family, but then again she never really mentioned anything about her past.

"And you of all people know that I'm not talking." Mara said stubbornly.

Draven tapped long, pale fingers on the table thoughtfully. "I hear reports that your sister was spotted around the sixtieth century."

Mara tensed. "Your point? You could never catch her."

"Yes," Draven was definitely smirking under his heavy hood, "but we never had leverage before."

"My sister isn't one to let sentimentality get in her way," Mara said in a low voice.

"Yes, well, we have help from the inside."

Piper became rigid at the same time as Mara. Help from the inside? Was he suggesting that there was a spy somewhere?

"What are you saying?" Mara hissed. "Stop speaking in riddles!"

Draven laughed, a chilling sound that made Piper's hair stand on end. There was something not right about this man. "But aren't you kind good at those? I would think so, with all the practice you've had over the past several thousand years."

Mara rolled her eyes. "Riddle-translating isn't hereditary."

"No, but the knowledge we seek has been passed down to you." Draven replied, his voice ever low and patient.

"Why are you so adamant on helping them?" Mara burst out, half-rising from her chair in fury. "Don't you remember what they did to your brother?"

Piper didn't know what happened to Draven Thorne's brother, but it sent him over the top. One moment he was calm and collected, the next he was standing and shouting at Mara violently. "_Don't talking about my traitor brother in front of me!"_

"They nearly drove him insane!" Mara snapped. "They banished him to wander though the different eras forever."

"He put himself in that position!" Draven snarled. He pulled out a steel sword hilt and flicked it. A long gleaming blade snapped out, stopping only a few inches from Mara's throat. "He was asking for it."

Mara was gaping at Draven in shock. "You _really _don't care, do you?"

"Why should I?" Draven growled. "Why should I care about this cursed planet, or the universe, or the gods, or anything else?"

Mara gave him a flat look. "A, because you live on this curse planet; B, because you live in this universe; C, because the gods, annoying as they are, kind of keep things running; and D I'm sure there is a logical reason to care about that stuff, too. I mean, chocolate people! If anything, at least save the world for pizza and chocolate!"

Well, there was some difference. Piper was sure Katelle would have said something like "save the world for apple trees and machine guns," but it was close enough.

Draven didn't sound so amused. "You are such a child."

Mara gasped and patted herself, as if she just realized she had a body. Then she said with more sarcasm than Piper thought she had ever heard before, "Really? Thank you! I really needed you to tell me that I was a child, because _clearly_ I couldn't tell myself. You're a lifesaver. I don't know what I'd do without –"

"Oh, shut up!" Draven snapped.

Mara settled back into her chair and kicked her feet up on the table, leaning back with her hands behind her head. "Where were we?"

Yep, definitely related to Katelle.

Draven pressed the tip of his sword into her neck a little more. "I really want to kill you, but unfortunately we need you alive for this to work."

Mara pushed the blade away with one finger, and sat straight again, taking her feet off the table. "I'm telling you –"

"Shush!" Draven suddenly sharply. He slowly turned around. "I believe we have a eavesdropper . . ."

Piper felt a stab of panic. They couldn't see her, right? Of course, people and monsters had talked to her before in dreams, so it wouldn't surprise her if Draven could sense her somehow.

He turned fully around, and Piper could just see the pale bottom half of his face. His robes looked a lot like a Jedi's from Star Wars, only black. She guessed that meant he actually looked like a Sith Lord, then. But that was totally besides the point. He was glaring at her angrily from behind his hood, she was sure.

"Go away, little demigod," Draven said. "I'm sure we'll meet soon enough."

Piper wanted nothing more than for the dream to end, but the Fates decided to tease her and wait until Draven stabbed at her face with his sword. There was a flash of steel, and she gasped and stumbled back, only to fall through the floor. The last thing she saw before her vision went black was Mara's baffled and irritated expression.

"Pipes . . ."

Piper jerked her arm over her face to block the blade. A small part of her brain told her that the only thing she would succeed to do with that was get her arm cut off _and_ her face impaled. Funny enough, the voiced a lot like Annabeth. The daughter of Athena was rubbing off on everyone, Piper thought with amusement.

Jason hovered over her nervously. "You okay?"

"Yeah," Piper replied. She sat up and blinked owlishly. "Did you know Katelle's got a sister?"

* * *

><p><strong>AN: Ugggghhhhhhh, this chapter was so hard! I was just staring at the screen for days before I finally finished it. I'm really sorry for taking so long! Next up is going to back at Hogwarts with Leo, Sirius, Frank and Hazel. **

**I hope this chapter wasn't too bad...review if you liked or if there was something wrong! (Besides for grammar. Seriously. I. Am. Not. Reading. This. Again. It's torture enough writing it!)**

**The plot god's name is Top Secret. No one has clearance for it, not even me. Although, if you offer Colonel Jack O'Neill beer, some Chinese food, and a fishing trip, he might tell you. Excuse my nerd moment. **

**Until next time! **


	12. Chapter 12

**Chapter Twelve**

**The Legend of Scratlantis**

Sirius stood in the Headmaster's office with Hazel, Piper, Leo and Jason. In front of them were Hermione, Harry and Ron. Draco stood apart, brooding in the shadows as he usually did. He was still getting over being a reckless Gryffindor, but Harry knew he was secretly enjoying it. Gryffindor was much more laid back than Slytherin, not to mention that they didn't care about wealth and status like many of the Slytherin families.

Than Weasley and Inanni Dolohov had been dragged into the Forbidden Forest by the future Predators, and left when the _utahraptors_ came through the anomaly. Than had seemed unusually calm, considering he had been attack, dragged and nearly eaten by rather terrifying looking monsters. Inanni, on the other hand, had been freaking out the appropriate amount. Still, it didn't make up for the chilling calm on the young Weasley's face.

There hadn't been much they could do after the anomaly closed then inform the professors eight students disappeared into a shiny wind-chime thing. That had ended with them having detention for the rest of the year being in the Forbidden Forest in the first place, and then because several students had been harmed because of it. Harry had to physically restrain himself from saying that they were doing the school a service, and that Than and Inanni would be dead if they hadn't helped, but he decided against it.

Dippet was even more air-headed than Harry initially though. The man couldn't think farther than when he was going to make his next cup of tea. He was blind as a bat, after the bat ran into a wall and was thrown into a room with hundreds and hundreds of moving objects. He didn't care what other people had to say, and he sounded about as smart as Lockhart. No wonder Dumbledore wanted to take over after the old man kicked the bucket. There was about twenty years of idiocy to fix.

"I would like to ask again," Dippet said in his wheezing "I'm about to croak" voice, "why were you in the Forbidden Forest?"

So far Harry had told the truth three times. After that, he started making elaborate stories about why there were there.

Leo was more than happy to contribute for their next story. "You see, your Headmasterness, we were taking a walk, when we heard screams from the woods. That was when we saw a lonely white rabbit clinging to his golden stop watch. We followed him into the Forbidden Forest, because he was going in the direction of the screams, and lo and behold!" Leo waved his hands around, "we fell down a hole and found . . . Scratlantis."

Jason coughed into his fist. "Ah, yes. Scratlantis."

"There, we feasting on acorns and made golden statues of Scrat." Leo finished seriously, "before returning. Unfortunately, Katelle, Percy and the others were lost in the giant drain in the center of the city."

Dippet looked tired. "I don't know where the Scratlantis came from, but I know Alice in Wonderland when I hear it."

"He knows!" Leo hissed dramatically.

"What shall we do?" Sirius whispered.

"Back up plan?" Leo asked.

"It's too late!" Sirius mock-wailed.

"Children!" Dippet cried. "What happened –"

"Headmaster, if I may," Dumbledore asked serenely.

Dippet nodded reluctantly. "But don't forget who the Headmaster is, Albus."

Dumbledore gave a strained smile, and turned to Leo, Sirius and Harry. "You were in the Forbidden Forest yesterday, correct?"

"Affirmative," Leo said in his "walkie talkie".

Dumbledore held his patience valiantly and continued, "you came across . . . monsters, you said?"

"Yup," Harry said.

"And you saw, quoting what you three said earlier, "a glowing wind chime from Tartarus with wicked shards of glass"?" Dumbledore asked.

Sirius restrained himself from laughing – a humongous feat for him – and said, "yes, Hea – Professor." He slapped himself inwardly. That could have been a huge mistake.

"And Mr Jackson, Miss Chase, Mr Riddle, Miss Sparrow and Mr Azule disappeared into this wind chime?" Dumbledore asked in a voice that was clearly disbelieving. "And then, after, Mr Grace, di Angelo and Miss McLean followed them?"

"Yes, sir," Hazel spoke up. "They went in to find Katelle."

"Why was Katelle the Forbidden Forest in the first place?" Asked Professor Slughorn.

This was were it got difficult. They'd tried telling the professors that there was a shiny, glittering portal that was letting monsters in, but for some reason the adults wouldn't believe them. Apparently there was something about several eleven year olds telling a story about monsters, portals, time travel and other fun stuff that just wasn't believable. Harry guessed he would be doubtful in their shoes as well. But where did they think the other disappeared to? In a tree?

Harry took a deep breath to tell them what happened – again – but Sirius took the liberty of story telling time on himself. "There were monsters attacking the students, like what happened last year. Katelle lead them into the wind chime, and Percy, Annabeth, Tom and Theon followed after her – well, there were followed by a few monsters themselves – to try and get her back. They never came back through."

Several of the professors blinked. Professor Bones, the Herbology professor and Head of Hufflepuff, said, "that's the most serious thing you said this entire time."

Harry closed his eyes. Here it comes.

"It's because I'm Sirius!" Sirius exclaimed, his eyes lighting up.

"They fell for that one," Leo muttered.

"Yeah, they did." Sirius snickered.

"Whoever named that child 'Sirius'," Professor Yohanin growled, "ought to be hung."

"I agree!" Sirius said. "My mother's a right jerk."

Dumbledore held up his hands to bring everyone back to topic. "Miss Sparrow went through this wind chime, the others followed her, and they never came out."

"Yes," Harry said impatiently. "How many times are we going to rehash this?"

"We need to get a perimeter set up," Hazel said, her Roman _centurian_ side kicking in. "The anomaly – that's what we've decided to call it – might open again."

"What makes you think that?" Professor Slughorn asked, his beady eyes narrowed. "It seems you children know a lot about these anomalies."

_Uh oh. _Harry thought, _think fast!_

"It's quite obvious, isn't it?" Hermione asked. Several people glanced at her, and she sighed. "Last year, several students were harmed – killed, even! – by creatures no one could identify. The same thing has happened this year."

Piper picked up on what Hermione was saying. "We have to assume that the anomaly is going to open again. Perhaps several times, before closing for good. Unless this area is known for mysterious creature attacks?"

Harry was so very glad he had brilliant friends like Hermione and Piper to answer the hard questions. Dippet, however, didn't seem satisfied with the girls' answers. "I still don't think –"

Slughorn frowned and looked at his pocket watch. "Armando, we all have classes to attend. I would like that you would let these children go? The Gryffindors and Slytherins have Potions with me in fifteen."

Dippet scowled at being interrupted again, but nodded hesitantly. "Very well. If anything else . . . unusual happens, be sure to report it to me."

"Yes, Headmaster." Harry said. He turned on his heel and left the Headmaster's office, the shadows clinging at his cloak as he walked by.

As Harry left, he vaguely overheard Dumbledore saying, "Armando, I do believe it would be within our best interests to keep a watch out for Mr di Angelo."

"I agree, Albus." Dippet murmured. "He shows inclinations to dark –"

The door slid shut, and their voices were blocked out. Harry followed the others down the corridors of Hogwarts. Ron had been waiting for them outside, since the Professors had already grilled Ron, Allan, Albus, Severus and Frank for information. Since Allan, Albus and Severus hadn't been there during the anomaly situation, they hadn't had much to say on the subject.

Mostly, Severus was swamped by questions from Slughorn about the potions he used and why. Slytherin earned several points after one smallish large lecture, and several demonstrations of exemplary potion working on the spot. Judging by the slightly smug look on Severus's face, he wasn't going to go easy in class just because he was surrounded by children. There was a reason why he was sorted into Slytherin twice.

Albus had smiled pleasantly and offered everyone lemon sherberts. For some reason, he thought that deviating from lemon _drops _to_ sherbert_ would completely separate the habit from the Professor Dumbledore's habit. The redhead couldn't quite understand why the others face palmed – with the exception of Allan – and muttered under their breath.

Allan had been . . . well, Allan. Basically he stood there and answered their questions with "yes" or "no" and the occasional "I don't know anything because I was not present when it happened." Sirius made a mental note to check the guy's emotional capacities and slip some giggle potion in his _sugarless_ tea. The grim animagus wasn't sure that if even he, Marauder extreme, could get Allan to crack under pressure. Even the _junior dark lord_ had a better sense of humor.

The Vulcan wannabe had it coming for him, Sirius promised inwardly.

"So, how did it go?" Ron asked, breaking Sirius from his inner musings.

"Poorly," Harry replied. "I don't think they're going to do anything to cover up the area with the anomaly."

"No risk of causing a massive time line wreck? No apocalyptic mistakes?" Ron asked, only half-joking.

"Worst comes to worst," Leo said with faked seriousness, "we'll have started the legend of Scratlantis."

Ron gave him a baffled look, but before he could ask Frank cut him off.

"But . . ." Frank looked confused. "I thought, after we fixed the problem in one era, we went into another. Wasn't that our "pathway" into another era?"

Harry shrugged. "If it was, we missed it. We can only hope another one opens up soon."

"That also means that Percy, Annabeth, Tom and Theon are there to fix it." Hermione said. "They'll be given another gateway to another era after they fix the problem in Cretaceous."

"And Jason, Piper and Nico," Hazel murmured.

"Cretaceous?" Leo asked. "What is that?"

Hermione sighed. "It's a period of time about 85 million years ago. I wonder how time was disrupted way back then."

Harry dreading to say what he was thinking, but he knew he had to. "I think I might have an idea." Hermione and the others looked at him curiously. "I think it means someone is going through times and deliberately changing things."

"But the possibilities -"

"Are endless," Harry finished for Piper. "We have no idea of know who, when, where, or what this person is doing or trying to accomplish."

"Whoever they are," Severus drawled, "it is safe to assume they are not of our way of looking at time travel and its rules. We, ultimately, need to treat them as a foe in need of being stopped at all costs."

"I agree with Severus." Albus said gravely. "If only I had my pensieve!"

Harry started to jog down the steps to the dungeons, where their Potions class was. "Why would you need your pensieve?"

"Harry," Albus said wearily, "it is a sad fact that I cannot remember the face of every single student I have taught. If one of the children don't belong, I might not remember."

"We should have brought your pensieve," Harry said with sigh. He stopped at the Potions class door and squared his shoulders. "Prepare for odd looks, people."

He opened the door and walked in quietly. Students looked at him with varying emotions: fear, amusement, confusion, curiosity, and a few others he couldn't quite identify. Than sat in the far corner, much quieter than he had been in the past. Harry sat on the Gryffindor side, with Than to one side, and Leo to the other. Jason was in front of him, and the others were scattered around the room.

Slughorn started his lecture, which Harry immediately drowned out. He turned to Than and muttered softly, "what were you doing in the Forbidden Forest?"

"It's none of you business," Than replied sharply.

"I'm just curious. And worried about your sanity," Harry added jokingly.

"I'm perfectly sane," Than snapped. "_I'm_ not the one who charged into the woods at the slightest whim something was wrong."

"There's a lot of "I'ms" being thrown around over here," Leo whispered. "Well, I'll throw in one of my own: I'm Leo Valdez, Bad Boy Supreme of the McShizzle."

"Of the what?" Than asked, his voice just a little too loud.

"Something you wish to say, Mr Evans?" Slughorn asked politely. "Perhaps you know the properties of figgleweed."

"Of what?" Harry asked, and then mentally slapped himself.

Slughorn smiled, a little patronizingly. "Figgleweed is a plant used in potions for sleeping. It is a muscle relaxant."

Leo snorted. "Better make sure you went to bathroom before taking it."

"That's kind of gross," Than said.

Harry ignored both of them and said, "yes, sir. Muscle relaxant. Got it."

"Can you name any potion figgleweed might be useful in?" Slughorn asked.

What was it with Harry and Potion Masters? Harry racked his brain for information. Something to relax . . . sleep . . . trace . . . "Drought of the Living Dead?" As soon as he said it he wanted to pound his head on the table. It must have been Watch Harry Be Dumb day or something, because everything he said was putting his foot in his mouth.

Slughorn frowned. "Very good. _Very_ good. You must have read up a lot on potions to know such an advanced drought. Ten points to Gryffindor."

Harry could sense Severus grumbling. "Thank you, Professor."

They brewed a potion that was supposed to heal pets. However, if it was brewed wrong it could kill them. Harry was glad Neville wasn't there, since he had a reputation for blowing up his cauldrons. Than went on to brood the entire class, occasionally sending acid looks at Harry and his friends. Harry really wanted to know what got him bent out of shape, so Leo could fix it. He wondered if a mallet or a simple hammer would be needed.

After potions they had Defense Against the Dark Arts with Professor Merryweather.

Harry hadn't been sure what to expect with Merryweather. He seemed cheerful and very knowledgeable – which was enough to make Harry thank his lucky charms – so he was hopeful that he would finally have a half-way descent DADA professor. The last good professor he had was Remus Lupin, but Harry had only been in his third year then. Now that he was older, Harry hoped he would learn some better defense and offense spells.

He came to reality with a metaphorical screeching halt. He was only eleven, in his first year. Harry mentally cursed his terrible luck. First good teacher in years, and he was only in year one.

On top of that, he was worried about his friends in the Cretaceous era. From what he had gleaned from Hermione's college-lecture worthy speech about that era, it was the height of the dinosaurs. While that was pretty awesome on one hand, it was incredibly dangerous on the other. He supposed it could have been much worse. If could have been the era with all the big man-eating insects, although he was sure that there was huge bugs in all of the ancient periods of time.

They had no way of telling if they were alright. Unlike Theon, they weren't given necklaces that had charms to tell them if anyone was injured. It had taken every once of his self-restraint – and a well-aimed glare from Hermione – to keep him from giving into his hero complex and charging into the anomaly after them. Hermione tried to make him feel better by reassuring him about Katelle's and Theon's extensive experience with time travel.

"Mr Evans?"

The voice broke through Harry's conflicted thoughts and made him jump almost a foot off his chair. Leo and Sirius snickered from a few rows away. Harry aimed a glare at them and straightened. "Yes, Professor Merryweather?"

"Would you like to demonstrate the spell?" Came the reply. Was it just Harry's imagination, or was there something teasing about the professor's tone?

"Um . . ." Harry had absolutely no idea what spell Merryweather was talking about. "I – um – I – what was the spell again? I had a hard time pronouncing it."

_Great job,_ Harry thought sarcastically. He was going to have to ask Leo to make a Smack-Harry-On-The-Face machine. _Now they think I'm a moron._

Merryweather smiled patiently. "It's alright, Mr Evans. The spell is _expelliarmus._" He carefully went through how to pronounce it properly, but Harry blocked that out. He had used this spell so many times he lose count.

Harry stood up and raised his wand at the professor, who was waiting for him to shout the spell. "_Expelliarmus!_"

A bright red light flashed out and the professor's wand flew into Harry's hand. Merryweather gave him a look of shock and glee.

_Keep a low profile._ Hermione's voice echoed in his mind.

He definitely needed a Smack-Harry-On-The-Face machine.

"Masterfully done, Mr Evans!" Merryweather exclaimed. "Twenty points to Gryffindor for an excellent display of _expelliarmus!_"

Harry gave a strained smile. Hermione was going to kill him. He could already see her throwing an exasperated glare at him. He sat down, promising himself that he would _not_ attract anymore attention to himself for the rest of the day. He would keep his head down, he wouldn't show off his level of knowledge in first year things, he wouldn't pull any pranks with Sirius and Leo – that one made him sigh sadly – and he would –

What was with Than's glare?

Harry was beginning to wonder if the kid was bipolar or something. He went from cheerfully chattering everyone's ears off, to dealing death by stares in a period of seconds. Maybe Sirius and Leo played a prank of him, and blamed it on Harry. If that was the case, then Harry was complaining. Than was sort of like Colin Creevey, if Colin drank ten cups of coffee in the morning and heard there was a Harry Potter convention happening that day.

Of course, then there was the Mr Hyde half of Than that came out every now and then. The part that would glare and sneer and irritate Harry more than the Doctor Jekyll. Or was it Doctor Jekyll that was bad and Mr Hyde was good? Harry wasn't Hermione, and he always got the two confused. For fear of having to go through a lecture about the book, and also decided to refrain from asking Hermione which was which.

After class was over, Harry piled his books, parchment and ink in his bag and went for the door. As he left, Than grabbed his arm and started to pull him down the hall, in the opposite direction that the green-eyed boy needed to go. Harry was so startled and taken by surprise by Than sudden behavior, he let the smaller boy drag him away a few feet before snapping back to reality and digging his heels in the ground.

"What are you doing?" Harry asked incredulously.

Than glowered at Harry darkly. "Just follow me."

"Uh huh," Harry said with fake seriousness, "sure. I'll do that. I'll just follow some kid that hates my guts to his secret lair where he could kill me however he wants without anyone hearing anything."

Than raised an eyebrow. "You have a wild imagination. And I'm not just 'some kid'."

"Oh?" Harry asked. "Then tell me, who are you?"

Than huffed, stopped moving and crossed his arms. "It's difficult to explain. And you can't tell anyone."

A dark look crossed Harry's face. "I'm not keeping anything from my friends."

Than sneered. "You all think you're so important. You don't even know _half_ of the things that are going on right now. You're so new to this, so _painfully_ obvious, it's sickening."

"So new to _what?_" Harry exclaimed. "Magic? Duh! I just found out –"

"Oh, spare me," Than waved his hand dismissively. "You're acting skills are so bad that I think a five year old could see through it. As I said before: you people are so new to this it's sickening."

Harry could feel a throbbing headache coming on. "So what do you think we are doing? What is so obvious?"

"You're going to mess everything up," Than hissed. "There's a reason that only a select few are chosen to time travel."

Harry froze. Time travel? _How_ had _Than_ guessed they were time travelers? "Wh-what are you talking about?"

Than snorted. "Again I say, you're a terrible actor. You're probably wondering how I guessed. Well, your group's 21st century lingo is a dead giveaway. Not to mention, there's no way that someone as helpless as you could perform a spell as well as you did during class."

"Okay, you caught me!" Harry shouted, raising his hands in there air. "So what? We're stuck here!"

Than shrugged. "I've never been stuck in a certain time for longer then maybe a year or so."

"A _year_ or so?" Harry mumbled, and continued sarcastically, "I feel ever so much better."

"Well, I was a little . . . disoriented." Than sounded like he wanted to say something much different. "I couldn't really think straight. I'm sure that had I been right in the mind, I would have gotten away sooner."

"Gotten away?" Harry asked. When Than didn't offer an explanation, Harry added, "you do know I'm going to tell my friends all of this anyways, right?"

Than's shoulders sagged, as if he had just had a heavy weight placed on them. "Yeah. I figured."

"Are . . . you alright?" Harry asked hesitantly.

An angry look passed over Than's face. "Do I _look _alright?"

"Sorry." Harry said quickly. "What is going on here? Katelle, Theon, even Allan, for all of his weirdness, they act like something bigger is going on. You hinted it earlier."

The other boy leaned against the wall, lazily inspecting his nails. He looked like he didn't have a single care in the world. Harry wasn't fooled. He had seen Katelle go from slumped and defenseless-looking to complete demon in a period of less than a second. If Than was as trained as she was, then he did _not_ want to get in a fight with him, magic or hand-to-hand. Or both.

"Yeah." Than admitted. "There are other things at work. But it's not for your little gang to worry about."

Harry definitely had a headache coming on. "How long is going to take before people realize that keeping me in the dark A, doesn't work; B, just makes things harder for both sides. Oh, and C, irritates me."

Than rolled his eyes. "Whatever. Get over it, golden boy. Just keep an eye out for that Yohanin guy. There's something not right about him."

Harry remembered what Sirius had told him about the professor, and the other woman, Christine Willis. "Uh huh. I'll get right on that."

The smaller boy's eyes narrowed. "You know something I don't."

_Is he psychic or something?_ Harry thought sarcastically. He decided against saying anything out lound.

"You _do,_" Than snapped. "Tell me."

Harry couldn't believe it. The kid out right _refused_ to tell him anything, but he expected Harry to just give him a status report on Yohanin?

"Right, like I'm telling you anything." Harry muttered.

Than rubbed his temples. "What did you tell the professors when Sparrow and the other idiots went missing."

"They aren't idiots! And we told them the truth." When Than's face became deadly calm, and not the good kind of calm, Harry spluttered, "but they didn't believe us! You need to control your temper."

Than rolled his eyes. "Who's talking?"

Harry flushed, realizing his words were a little hypocritical. "Whatever. I'm guessing your under an illusion of some sort?"

Than shrugged. "Of a sort."

"Is Than your real name?" Harry asked.

"What kind of question is that?" Than started to walk down the hall, back towards the Great Hall. "Whatever. Go tell your friends about me, but if you blow my cover . . ." Than's voice trailed off. He leveled a glare at Harry. "I'm not like any monster, or person you've ever fought before."

Than quickly walked away, leaving Harry behind. He supposed that last part was supposed to be a threat, but there had been too much hollow bitterness in his statement.

"Oh, and one more thing," Than called over his shoulder. "Whatever you do, don't let yourself get caught by the scientists alive."

With that cheery recommendation, the embodiment of negativity walked away.

For a second Harry just stood there, trying to reel in his cognitive thoughts. _What just happened._ Than, the bright and cheerful little Gryffindor, was a world-weary time traveler with a chip on his shoulder. One moment he was discussing pranking ideas with Leo and Sirius, then he was going warpath on them. The kid had seemed a little . . . off before, but Harry had just assumed that he had a rough home life, not a rough era life.

He shook his head, clearing the fog from his brain and forcing his limbs to work again. He walked down the corridor outside the DADA class, towards the Great Hall, as slowly as he could without looking strange. He kept himself at that pace so he knew he wouldn't catch up with Than. He had a feeling the younger – or was he older? There was no way to tell – boy wouldn't appreciate Harry's company. And the feeling was entirely mutual.

He wondered if all time travelers were as deranged as Katelle and Than. He could help but also wonder how long it would be before he, and everyone else, was as crazed as them. Even Theon, who seemed to have a limitless source of energy that could fuel the whole world forever, had been terribly drained when they discovered each other.

An idea struck him, freezing him mid-walk. What if traveling through the portals had some kind of side effect? Maybe they drained energy or something. He would have ask Allan. Since Katelle was gone, they had lost their (somewhat) sane source of information about time travel. Honestly, the thought of asking Allan about anything made Harry want to bang his head on the wall. It was like trying to have a debate about human rights with the Womping Willow.

In the Great Hall, Allan was sitting at the Slytherin table, as usual. He looked stiff, emotionless, and robotic, also as usual. If Allan was even the least bit worried about Katelle, who was seemingly his _only_ close friend, he didn't show it. In the past few weeks, he had only grown more and more detached and cold, veering away from any kind of human contact.

There were times that Harry wondered if Allan was human at all.

"So," Harry started awkwardly as he sat down between Severus and Allan. He cast a quick muffling spell, so no one could eavesdrop on their conversation. Well, if they had a conversation. "I have a few questions."

Allan fixed him with an empty stare. Harry supposed it was something.

"I was wondering about the time portals." He blurted out, before Allan could kill him.

The redhead set his fork down calmly. Harry resisted the urge to snort. As if Allan had even been eating – he never seemed to eat anything. "That is a dangerous topic to bring up in such a densely populated area."

"Did you not see the _muffliato?"_ Harry asked. When Allan opened his mouth, he quickly added, "rhetorical question. I wanted to know if there's any side effects to traveling."

Allan frowned slightly – probably the most emotion he had showed the whole time. "Why are you wondering about this now?"

Like he said. It was like talking to the Womping Willow.

"I'm curious! Theon seemed so – so _drained,_ and Katelle's half-way insane. Than's – well, that's a long story." Harry let out a long stream of curses at himself in his head. There he went, not even five minutes after Than told him his secret, and he was already spilling the beans.

"Theon was drained due to do harsh environments and survivor's guilt," Allan said his border-line monotone. "Katelle is . . . a special case. And Than is a mystery."

Harry blinked in surprise. "You knew about Than?" Ugh, take that back. Harry was completely _not_ surprised. Leave it to Allan to notice something as important as another time traveler (and not a particularly nice one, at that) and no say anything.

"No one asked."

"_No one asked,"_ Harry mimicked, his Gryffindor temper rearing its head. "This is going no where. What do you know about all of this? Traveling, Yohanin, that Willis lady . . . what is going on?"

Allan frowned deeply at his plate, which was a extreme display of emotion for him. "I . . . do not remember. I'm sorry."

"You . . . don't remember?" Harry didn't know whether to laugh or be worried.

"I was rendered . . . incapacitated for a certain length of time." Allan spoke haltingly, as if afraid of telling the truth. "My memory is hazy at best."

"Why didn't you say anything about his before?" Harry asked.

"No –"

"And don't you say "no one asked", that's not a valid excuse." Percy and his friend's bluntness was rubbing off on him more than he thought.

"Hey!"

Harry turned to see Abraxas Malfoy frowning at him.

"What?" Harry asked waspishly.  
>"What're you guys talking about that's so secretive?" Abraxas tilted his head in a questioning way.<p>

Abraxas the puppy. Harry almost laughed.

"We were discussing something important." _How did he get past the spell?!_ "The Legend of Scratlantis."

"What's that?" Abraxas was all eyes and big, floppy ears. Yep, he was now hereby dubbed Abraxas the Puppy.

"Well, you see, there's this ancient story about a squirrel, rat hybrid . . ."

* * *

><p><strong>AN: Ughhhh, that was so hard! I took forever with that. Unfortunately, I am not immune to the dreaded writer's block, and it struck hard and fast. **

**I'm kind obsessed with Final Fantasy 7, so I couldn't resist putting a 'Puppy' reference in there. Abraxas the Puppy. RIP Zack the Puppy. **

**So I don't own the legend of Scratlantis. So hopefully no lawyers will be knocking down my door, screaming death-by-research papers. **

**Can I get some reviews? Pretty please? They really, really help motivate me to write faster. It's like night and day when I get reviews. If something's up, tell me so I can change it. (Well, maybe. I'm kind of lazy so...). I mean with the plot, or characters. If there's anything you want me to add in there, or take out, or whatever, tell me!**

**Next chapter will be back to Percy, Katelle, Annabeth and Tom. There might be some flash backs pertaining to Katelle's past. (Idea from Theon Azule, which was like a light bulb moment for me). **


	13. Chapter 13

**Chapter Thirteen**

**The Ghosts of the Past**

Katelle wasn't afraid of the dark.

When she was young, she had learned that fear in general was her enemy. Fear only paralyzed her, making her life harder than need be. Monsters were normal, and once she got past the fact they would _never_ stop stalking her, she stopped feeling totally insane. It made it easier to cope with her abnormalties. Of course, there was the whole "easy and demigod don't mix" problem. Usually, it smacked her on the head, although she had tripped and hit her shin a couple times.

Whatever the case was, it hurt and she didn't like it. Now her childhood fear of darkness was replaced by sleep. She wasn't an insomniac, she could fall sleep – _a__ll too well. _Sadly, sleep typically meant dreams, and dreams meant a rough day ahead. She also wasn't afraid of the dreams. Then again, Katelle didn't dream. No, she had nightmares.

She sat up in the darkness of the bunker, watching her companions vigilantly. Percy and passed almost immediately, and though Annabeth did take a little longer to fall asleep, it wasn't nearly as long as it took Theon. Even so, the kid was sleeping fitfully. Tom tossed and turned, plagued by fever-induced nightmares. A few times he had shot up, muttering about monsters, and then he would collapse again.

Nothing she did would lower his fever. For awhile, it seemed he was recovering, only for him to relapse badly. His fever returned, along with a few other symptoms like not being able to hold down _anything_ they fed him. It seemed he had an allergic reaction to the poison. Well, he could have been allergic to her cure, but there was no way to tell. She wasn't about to experiment on him with the cure, either.

She curled up lip in disgust at the thought. She had had enough of experiments for one life time, thanks.

She rested her head back on the cement wall, holding her gun to her chest like a security blanket. She fought against her eyes, which felt as if they had lead weights attached to them, with sand to add to the discomfort. If only it was physically possible to prop one's eyes open with toothpicks. She would have done it in a heartbeat.

A sharp pain stabbed in her side. She winced, pressing her free hand to her injured abdomen. She lifted her hand up to her face, and even with the darkness she could see the blood. Not to mention the metallic smell was tell-tale. She had hoped it would stop bleeding on its own, but it seemed _everything_ needed to be mothered at the moment.

She had injured herself running from the Predators. One of the quicker ones caught up with her and took a swipe at her side and knocked her over. She had been so close to death at that moment, with the monster hovering over, slavering hungrily. Its claws had been coated in her blood. For so long she had run, beat the odds, rubbed her good luck in Death's face, and at that moment it all tumbled down around her.

She had survived by pure chance. _Someone_ had wanted her alive at that moment. The sound of a horn blowing off echoed in her memory, and the faint shadow the Predator turned away in her mind's eyes, distracted. She had stolen that moment to escape, where she eventually found the bunker and changed into her animagus form. The _velociraptor_ could heal itself faster than humans, plus the wound shifted to let severe area.

Another flash of pain hit her. She pulled off her jacket and – painstakingly – peeled back the part of her shirt that was . . . ugh, it was disgusting. There was a _reason_ she wasn't a freaking doctor! She slathered some of the healing paste on it whipped her shirt back down, slipping back into her precious leather jacket.

Maybe if she just ignored the wound, it would disappear. Out of sight, out of mind . . . she didn't even realize it when she drifted off.

The room was open and spacious, huge windows and glossed floors.

Katelle sat at a long redwood table, her feet kicked up. She was dressed differently that in reality, with camo cargo pants, a black tank top, a leather jacket (she would _never_ part with her jacket) and combat boots. Her silver knife was out in the open, strapped to the outside of her boot. There was a katana sword on the table in front of her, its curved blade gleaming silver.

There were three other people in the room, randomly sitting around the table. She knew them well, since they had been her friends since the very beginning.

Acer Finch, who lay across the table covering his ears and singing – badly – had white-blonde hair, as pale as Draco's, and similarly pale skin. His eyes were brilliant violet, and flashing with wild humor as the others yelled at him to shut up. He was the class clown, the one who would put red Kool-Aid in the shower heads, bleach in the shampoo, and yellow hair dye in the conditioner. Or he would leave the milk carton just _slightly_ full, so there was about a single gulp left, or leave one scoop of ice cream in the carton. . .

She missed him.

Sitting closest to Katelle was Acer's sister, Arianne, who looked almost exactly like her brother, only with darker hair. She had her nose buried in a book, with ear buds blasting music to drown out her brother's antics. The was book was _The Iliad,_ and for some mysterious reason Katelle – and everyone else – would never understand, she was trying to memorize it. So far, she had memorized the first "chapter" of the book, which she was mouthing as she read the words. That girl was insane.

Last was Allan. He was different, freer. He was _smiling._ Katelle hadn't seen Allan smile in . . . a long time. His auburn hair was curlier, as if reacting to his good mood, and his brown eyes were filled with amusement and he tackled Acer, ensuing a friendly wresting match between the two boys. He wasn't so pale, the tell-tale glow from the tropical country he hailed from hadn't been bleached away yet.

For a second, everything remained silent, and Katelle could only read their lips and guess what they were saying. She knew them so well, though, she didn't have to hear what they were saying. Although, even if it was a dream, what she wouldn't give to hear them laugh just one more time . . .

"Yo, Caterwaul!" Acer's voice pierced through her mental fog. "What's goin' on in that thick skull of yours?"

_Does he even know what a caterwaul is?_ Katelle though with a faint smile.

Arianne lifted her head from her book, hearing Acer. Apparently the music wasn't as loud as Katelle thought. Then again, Acer was loud enough to out-shout a sonic boom. "You probably don't want to know what she's thinking."

Katelle felt the small smile widen on her face before she could stop it. _Why_ did she have to have these dreams? It was like mental torture! She knew it was only a matter of time before it took a severe turn.

"Ace!" Allan choked from the ground. "Killing me!"

"Oh!" Acer leapt off the redhead with a grin. "Whoops. Sorry!"

"You could at least _try_ to sound sincere," Allan muttered.

"Everyone has so much fun hitting you though," Katelle threw out before she could stop herself. "I know, because I do it all the time."

"Oh, yeah you do," Acer snickered.

"I'll kill you," Katelle said without much seriousness.

"Uh huh, sure." Acer tossed himself on the table again. "So, when are you going to save us?"

"Huh?" Katelle felt despair crawling at her. Here it goes again.

"You know," Arianne said flippantly. "Come to your senses? See the light? Pull yourself together and bust us outta here."

"I don't know what you're talking about." Katelle growled.

"You're lost!" Acer exclaimed. "You need to get back home. We're waiting, you know. We aren't dead."

Tears were burning in her eyes. She choked them back, a promise she had made years before forcing her to shove back her emotions. That was before she lost her best friends to a fate worse than death. And as melodramatic as that sounded, it was true.

"Remember?" Arianne asked. "You promised. You said you'd come back. You _told_ us wouldn't leave us in the hands on those mad men."

"I know!" Katelle shot to her feet. "I had no choice, there was –"

She gasped and doubled over, as her breath suddenly flew her lungs. She like she'd been punched in the gut as the dream turned fuzzy. For a second her vision faded, so all she was aware of was the sound of her heart beat and the steadily rising panic in her chest. She had felt so handicapped since . . . since . . . She didn't want to think about it.

Suddenly her vision cleared, and she immediately wished it hadn't. She knew _exactly_ where she was, and it was the bane of her life.

The pure malevolence of the place made her wish she could curl into a ball and disappear forever. Disappearing was something she had considered many times before. After she fulfilled all of her impossible promises, she could just vanish off the face of the earth and from time itself. No one assumed she felt like that when they saw her – they couldn't see farther than the well-crafted mask she donned daily.

She remembered her time in that room. Memories flew unbidden to her mind's eye, which only served to deepen her distress. That was the time that she was known not by a name, but by a number. She was merely one component out of the entire circuit, used for the amusement and greed of business dealers and scientists. She didn't even know what changes they had done, or even half of the stuff they jabbed in her arm, but she knew it definitely wasn't good.

The room was perfectly square, and there was exactly three hundred white tiled squares on the floor and the ceiling. She knew, because she had been there long enough to count. There were several shelves bolted into the walls, which were covered in research papers, files, and personal scientists' journals. She also knew that they were journals, because she had been nosy enough to read them.

There was an operation table in the center, made of cold steel. There were thick leather straps holding the arms and legs of the victim down, so no matter how hard he fought, it was no use. There was a white sheet covering the bottom half of his body. Random surgical equipment, set there purely for the goal of terrifying the boy, lay around the table.

This was the room Allan and she spent two years of their life in. For two years, mortal and demigod scientists combined poked and prodded them. When she finally escaped with him, he was different. He didn't laugh, or smile. He didn't show emotion. He didn't know how to have fun. She nearly got caught trying to free Acer and Arianne, so she had to escape with only Allan. She didn't know if he resented her for failing to save them.

Even though it was a dream, she could help but feel utterly disgusted. There were fine silvery scars over his stomach and shoulders, too precise to be accidents. She didn't have to think about it too long to figure out that they were made from a scalpel blade, since she had plenty of experience with them herself. Even worse, there was a number tattooed into his shoulder – 104.

Katelle had a similar number on her shoulder, only it was 99. Just a random number, to rub in the fact that they had been no better than lab rats at the time. It had been put there to make them lose their resolve, to disassociate with their humanity. She had been the ultimate stubborn rat and had left a number on the next scientist who got next to her after that.

She was hand-cuffed from then on.

She fell to her knees next to the operation table, letting her forehead rest on the edge of the table. Would Acer and Arianne hate her for being an utter failure? Would they blame her for whatever they had to go through? She wouldn't be surprised in the least if they were angry at her. She had promised she would save them, but that had been two years ago. Two years was a long time, even for someone like Acer.

She stood up, but when she looked at the table, it wasn't Allan she saw. The mop of shoulder-length auburn hair was replaced by long honey colored hair. The braid fell over the side of the table, a large, stone ring tied at the bottom. Her vibrant blue eyes were closed, and her normally healthily tanned skin was pale. Her face had lost a lot of its youth, looking gaunt and drawn, even in sleep. She was wearing the jacket Katelle got her for her eleventh birthday.

Katelle gasped, gripping the edge of the table. _Her sister was on the operating table._ She knew it was dream, but she could stop herself from undoing the straps and propping her little sister up, willing her to wake. Mara Sparrow said nothing, not even responding when Katelle gently tugged her braid. Mara hated it when people did that. The last person who tried ended up in the hospital with a life-time lesson to _never_ touch a girl's hair. She was probably in a drug-induced coma.

"It hurts, does it not?"

Katelle tensed. She recognized that voice. "Thorne? Draven Thorne?"

"Ah, so you remember me." A cloaked figure walked in front of her. There was a sickeningly amused smirk showing on the bottom half of his face, which wasn't covered by his hood. From the little she could see, he was deathly pale and probably thin as a scarecrow. "I was afraid I'd slipped your mind."

"Uh huh," Katelle snapped. "What's my sister doing here?"

"We needed . . . well, that's not important." Draven smirked again, as if the situation was incredibly hilarious. "You see, we need you here. If you don't come here, I lift my foot off the scientists' lab coats."

"If I find a _scratch_ on her –"

"She will not be harmed," Draven said lazily. "Unless you resist, or do anything else to cause trouble."

"What do you want?" She demanded.

"That would ruin the surprise!" Draven said with a fiendish grin.

_Gods, of all the cliché . . ._ "What crappy sci-fi movies have _you_ been watching?" Katelle asked. "And what did they _do_ to you? Where's your brother?"

The amused expression fled as if it had never been there. "Do not bring up my _brother's_ name!"

"I didn't say him name," Katelle grumbled.

"I will kill you in the most painful ways –"  
>"You abducted my sister, dragged me from a <em>perfectly<em> good dream, just to tell me you want to kill me?" She groaned, rubbing her temples wearily. "I already knew that! That's like taking up a whole class just going over the fact that math is mental abuse!"

"You are hopeless." Draven said with disbelieving shock. "You're such a waste of space. I'd really like to know what my master wants with you, because _I_ think you should just be put down."

"So you have a master?" Katelle lifted an eyebrow. "Care elaborating his – or is it a her? – name to me?"

"I'll pass," Draven sneered.

They fell into silence. Katelle stared at her sister. She was torn: part of her needed to help out Percy, Harry and their friends, and part of her needed to help her sister. She couldn't do them both! If Draven's_ master_ was as sadistic as Draven himself, then she would be walking into certain death. Probably certain_ painful_ death. There was no way out of this mess, she either helped one side and her sister died, or she helped her sister and that other side didn't have someone to keep them from dying . . .

Then it hit her. She _did_ have some back up! Twin back ups, actually, and they were related to a certain Shrimp.

"What do you want me to do?"

Percy woke with a start. _Boy_ was that a strange dream! He was pretty sure that was one of those "your brain is doing its thing" dreams. Either that, or by the end of this adventure, they'd all be dressed up as Alice in Wonderland characters, acting out parts of the movie. He wasn't sure if he was insulted or flattered that he was the Mad Hatter, and Leo made a _terrifying_ Cheshire Cat. Whatever the case, Katelle was the Jaberwaky.

He sat up, and wasn't too shocked to see Katelle already awake. Tom was also awake, but he seemed to less than lucid. Annabeth was stirring, and Theon snapped up almost immediately. He jumped to his feet, grabbed his caduceus-sword, gasping, "where's the ant eater?"

"Uh, I think you were dreaming." Percy said with a grin.

Theon sat down, frowning. "I think you're right."

"What happened?" Tom asked. "I was – there were these _huge_ mosquito hawks, and then I woke up. I glad that wasn't real."

There was an awkward silence, when everyone wondered how to break it to the mosquito-phobic boy that his dream was _very_ real. Their problem was solved when Tom winced, touching his shoulders. Then his eyes widened and scrambled to his feet. "It was real! There were huge – huge – _it was real!"_

"Yeah, yeah," Katelle muttered. She seemed to be in a more rotten mood than usual. She stood, swinging a pair of ear buds around in a circle. "So, you remember the plan?"

Percy nodded. She had gone over the plan the night before. They would all set out the Mp3 players – which were more like sound projectors – all around the city, and then turn them on. The devices would let out a very strong frequency, which would practically blow the monster's ear drums out. They would only have about thirty minutes while the Mp3 players worked, because the frequency took up a lot of space and used even more power.

In that time, they would meet up in a large, silver building on the east corner of the city. That was, apparently, where some kind of machinery would be. Hopefully the machine would be their way out of that time. If it didn't work, then they were stuck in the center of a hive of angry super-monsters. Failure wasn't an option.

Annabeth turned the Mp3 player over in her hands. "Where did you get these?"

"Way in the future," Katelle replied. "Or maybe the past, since we're even farther in the future. They were made when the Predator attacks started getting worse and worse."

"I still don't get what cause this." Annabeth sighed.

Katelle was quiet a few moments before saying, "I'm hoping this building will have some answers. If it doesn't . . . well, I'll just have to keep looking."

There was something off with her. Percy wasn't sure exactly what it was, but her eyes seemed a little hollow, as if they had lost their fire. He met Annabeth's concerned gray eyes, and felt reassured that he wasn't the only one noticed. Tom and Theon were as oblivious as ever, but knowing Annabeth, she probably already had a brilliant plan to make Katelle spill whatever was bothering her.

Katelle yanked a rack off one of the shelves, not seeming to care that a ton of supplied went crashing to the floor. She leaned the rack against the wall under the manhole exit to the bunker. After taking a few test steps up the rack, she quickly scaled up and hooked her fingers in the grooves of the manhole lid, sliding it aside.

She lowered herself far enough to peer back inside the bunker at the other occupants. "It's clear. We only have so much time before the next wind storm, though, so we need to hurry."

"Since when do we ever have time?" Tom muttered.

Percy snorted. It seemed the dark-haired kid was picking up on the tragic luck that demigods had.

After Katelle disappeared through the manhole, Percy followed her. Annabeth surfaced after him, which led to a minor argument between Theon and Tom about which of them would go first. Theon ultimately won when he mentioned that he had more experience with time travel, and he knew how to take care of the mosquito creatures. It was a low blow, but it got Theon up the latter – rack – first.

Above ground didn't look much different than it had before. It was just as sandy, ruinous, and dreary as it had been when Percy and the other first ran through the anomaly. Had someone told him only a few weeks before that the world would one day look almost _worse_ that Tartarus, he would have laughed at them. There was no arguing with his eyes, though, and they told him that the world had indeed turned out worse than Tartarus.

Katelle turned around of her heels, facing them. "Okay! So we've got two little kids with us, so I say we go in pairs of two. Annabeth and Theon, because honestly, only you can deal with that kid's energy level. I don't trust him with Percy. They'll probably try to prank the monsters or something."

"Hey!" Percy and Theon protested, Katelle cut them off.

"Tom will go with Percy. I'm more than capable to handle myself. Understood? Good. Get to it!" She jumped over a pile of twisted metal and junk, and disappeared. They stood there a few seconds, blinking in shock.

"Who nominated her as the group leader?" Tom asked sourly. "I'm adding them onto my hit list."

"It makes sense." Annabeth sighed, looking at the silver Mp3 player that the daughter of Kronos had given her a few minutes before.

Percy had his own blue music player, which he was a little sad he was going to have to part with. It looked expensive. Tom glowered at his pink one, while Theon seemed content with gold.

Theon closed his hand around the device, snapping into motion as if he had been jolted. "Well. Me and Annabeth will go in a general _that_ way direction," Theon waved his hand vaguely to his right. "And you guys do whatever."

Percy shrugged. "Whatever. I'll take the east side of the city. We'll meet at that building Katelle was talking about."

"Okay." Annabeth bit her lower lip, and called as she started to walk away with Theon, "be careful, Seaweed Brain!"

It didn't take her long to disappear into the piles of the junk. Percy turned his attention to the sullen Slytherin, who was glaring at him as if to dare him to try to order him around.

"So, Shrimp," Percy said as they picked their way closer to the city. "You still hate seafood? 'Cause I'm pretty sure this is a world-wide thing. No seas for sea food. Maybe you did this in your conquest to end all sea food?"

Tom grimaced as almost hit his head on the pole sticking from a pile of junk metal. "I really do hate the ocean, but I don't hate it _this_ much."

"You hate the ocean, huh?" Percy's eyes narrowed. "That's kind of my dad's turf." _So, he's not a Poseidon kid._

"Sorry," Tom muttered. "Just telling the truth. Not overly fond of heights, either."

Well, that didn't mean anything. Thalia hated heights, but she was still a daughter of Zeus. "Uh . . . you tend to zap people randomly at all?"

Tom looked at him oddly. "Are you trying to figure out who my . . . godly parent is?"

"Yup." Percy said bluntly. "Maybe it's Hecate. You seem to be really good at magic."

"Maybe." Tom frowned. "Isn't Hecate a goddess, though? My mother was mortal, for sure."

"Oh." That ruled out Hecate for sure.

"Do you ever –"

"_Look!_" Tom hissed, pointing though a particularly large mountain of rusted metal. It mostly obscured Percy's view of whatever was beyond it, but there were a few gaps that allowed them to spy through.

They were already in the outskirts of the city, in a long-deserted and crumpling housing development. Percy remembered that Katelle had wanted the Mp3 player to be planted about two miles to the east. She had also instructed them – rather harshly – to run like hades after, as well. She hadn't told them why, though. Percy hoped it didn't mean there was nasty surprises, but with their luck, it would probably end in a demon army attack.

He sighed. If only Hephaestus had built him that army of golden lazer-eyed, acid spitting llamas. That would have been so useful. Not to mention cool.

"Huh?" Tom asked, breaking Percy from his wishful thinking. "AN _acid spitting_ llama? Are you insane?"

Percy realized that he had said all of that out loud. "Uh . . . just forget that. I claim copyrights on the idea anyway."

Tom gave him a look of slight apprehension and concern. "I'm not even going to ask."

"Good."

They traveled in silence for awhile, passing by abadoned and creepy looking houses. The windows were either badly cracked and dirty, or completely smashed out. Most of the doors were broken down, and there were bullet holes riddling the sides of the walls. By all rights, it looked like a war zone that had been annihilated by a bunch of well-aimed missiles. There was no grass, or any other signs of life moving in the houses.

Percy decided he was happy he didn't see any signs of life in the houses, because if there was anything moving in there, it probably wasn't nice. He could just picture evil zombies lurking in the haunted walls held together by termites (if termites even existed anymore). He could also easily imagine those insanely fast monsters that Katelle had run from the day before snarling quietly in the houses, beady eyes analyzing its prey . . .

"Look at that!" Tom exclaimed, making Percy jump and reach for Riptide.

"What?" Percy asked, alarmed.

Tom picked up a square piece of technology. "What's this?"

Percy wasn't sure if he was relieved it wasn't a monster warning, or irritated that Tom had startled him so badly. Because of this, he barely managed to keep the patronization out of his tone when he said, "That's a laptop, Tom."

"What's it do?" Tom asked.

Percy _really_ didn't feel like explaining the advent of the internet and a bunch of other hard questions he knew would be thrown at him by the brainiac boy, so he chose to not feed the flame. "It's a piece of junk. Put it down."

Tom gave him a look that made him seem remarkably like an upset kitten. Percy didn't even know how he managed it, but the son of the sea god felt himself melting. "Ugh, fine! It's a amazing piece of technology that I really miss. It's basically like having all of the information of the world at your fingertips. Want to learn German? There's a free program somewhere on there. A helicopter flight manual? That's there as well."

"What's a helicopter?" Tom asked with wide eyes.

_Curse that kitten look!_ Percy thought. _No wonder he won all the teachers over! One look at that face, and they're all putty for his malicious plans. _It was just like when a cat wanted tuna. There was simply no way one could turn the 'Look' down, even though this person knew they were being horribly manipulated. But surely such a cute and innocent face could think up such dastardly things . . . Then the cat would scratch this person in the face.

Rinse and repeat the next day.

"It's a flying vehicle for transportation." Percy replied. _Wow,_ he thought. _I sounded smart! Annabeth would be proud._

Tom looked down at the laptop. "Do you think it could be fixed?"

Percy looked at him flatly. "That thing is hundreds of years old. My laptops die on average every three months. You be the judge."

Tom gave the laptop an almost sad look, and then set it down with a sigh. "I'll have to procure one of those things from a decent time."

"You get on that," Percy snorted, and kicked over a mailbox, which had been remarkably stayed standing through thousands of years of wind storms. At least until Percy Jackson had showed up, it was.

Tom sighed. "Leave it to you to knock down something that probably been standing for thousands of years."

"Yeah, I kind of have a talent of making things go boom." Percy said with a grin.

Tom frowned. "I don't know. You usually make things go _whoosh_."

Percy's smile didn't fade. "Yeah, well, it comes with the territory."

Tom looked like he was going to say something snide, but he suddenly changed his mind. His blue eyes brightened and he pointed to a tall building a few hundred feet away from them. "Isn't that where Katelle said to put one of the devices?"

"I think so," Percy said.

The building was in good shape for being so old, but it was still covered in bullet holes and things that look suspiciously like claw marks. There were a few rusty, dust-covered cars parked in the parking lot. The entrance didn't have a door, but the shattered glass on the ground was probably what was left of it. The large, elaborate building seemed a little out of place in the neighborhood, which was fairly simple.

As they drew closer, Percy started to notice some strange things. Like recent bullet shells, stirred up dust, and footprints in the dirt covering the inside of the building's floor. The footprints still looked old – there was a layer of dust forming over them – but they were much more recent then the rest of the era. It looked as if someone – or several someones – had been at that place in the last few weeks.

Percy stopped in front of the elevator doors with a sign. There was no way that _that_ was still in order. Tom was already opening the door to the stairs. "Hey!" Percy hissed. "Wait up!"

"She wanted them to be put at the top of the building." Tom looked up at the many, many flights of stairs. "_Why?_"

Percy looked up the stairs with some trepidation. "I'll go first. You stay close behind. We'll be done before you know it."

"We better be," Tom muttered.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: Another chapter! (apologies for the cliche chapter title. I'm lacking in creativity today.) I've been so bad with updating as of late...I'm really sorry about that, but it's probably going to be the pattern until I can get everything organized. I hope this chapter wasn't too bad...I'm kind of stressed that this whole story's gone wayward. It might get a little dark at some points (especially when it's Katelle's POV, because she's got one messed up past), but not too bad.**

** Abraxas being hyper and puppy-like is kind of unusual, I know, but there's so many stories portraying him as evil! I know he was Riddle's henchmen, but that doesn't mean he started out evil. Plus, I wanted a puppy character in there, and Abraxas happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time and was my victim. **

**I really appreciate reviews as well!**


	14. Chapter 14

**Chapter Fourteen**

**Revenge of the Insects**

Branches whipped by, pushed aside by his hands. Razor-edged leaves left scratches on his forearms and palms, and making him wince in pain. The wetness of the rainforest he was in left his clothes damp, sticking to his form like glue and thoroughly uncomfortable. He didn't even know how many times he had tripped on roots. He was sure that if he fell on his knees again, they were going to run away for fear of their lives.

Theon guessed that they would be in the same boat if they did run away, because he was running from a pack of angry animals. And even with his inhuman speed, he had to worry about Ivan and Aiden. They weren't blessed with his incredible speed, and Ivan had a broken ankle from when he fell out of a tree. It was long story, including bats, spiders, and scary stories. Time for that later.

Over the past months – or at least Theon thought it felt like months – they had changed a lot. Ivan and Aiden had sprouted, and their hair was nearly rat-tail status. Theon's wasn't much better, hanging in tangles around his face. They had discovered quickly that combs were _not_ made in the era they were stuck in. Showers weren't readily available, either. He wasn't even going to go into the state of their cleanliness. If there had been even the slightest access fat on them, it was gone now.

Theon would welcome Skeletor jokes, if he could just find a way back to the 21st century.

They had been making their way through the forest by night, because they figured that most of the animals would be asleep. Well, the forest had been asleep until hurricane Future crashed through it. For all the weeks Theon, Ivan and Aiden had been traveling through time, they still had to work on their level of noise. So far, their total and complete lack of stealth had almost killed them nearly . . . Theon had lost count, to be honest. It was a lot, though.

It wasn't like the twins could blame Theon, though. He was hyper, and he had been holding his wand at the time. One misused word and a spike of energy later, and the explosion that resulted from it probably alerted monsters in the Arctic of their presence. They had been surprised the gods themselves hadn't come to check out what caused the enormous explosion, but so far they were clear. After that, they had tried to continue, only much quieter.

Well, it turned out _giganosaurus_ had much better ears than the gods.

They had nearly died when a pack of thirty of the flesh-eating dinosaurs – that's right, dinosaurs, they were stuck roughly 85 million years in the past – ambushed them with stealth that should have been illegal. They had just managed to survive that unscathed, but the _giganosaurus_ wasn't a predator to be put off. It was game on from that point forward, with Theon, Ivan and Aiden feeling a lot like doomed mice.

Theon peered over his shoulder to check on the twins. They were struggling to keep up, even with Theon slowing to a more manageable speed. Ivan was partially supported by Aiden, his forehead beading with sweat. The son of Hermes had a feeling the ankle was bothering him a lot more than he let on. especially Ivan had only sprained it the day before and they had no ambrosia or nectar to help it heal faster.

Theon jerked to a stop when he nearly plowed into a clearing. Usually, he would had rejoiced to see such a rare occurrence, but it seemed like the perfect place for some random predators to jump out at them. Like, oh, he didn't know, hungry _giganosaurus, _perhaps? A few seconds later, the twins ran into his back, which almost sent him flying into the clearing again. He pushed them back and stumbled a few feet away from the clearing.

"Why are we stopping?" Ivan hissed quietly.

"Clearing," Theon whispered back. "It would be a death trap."

"Can we skirt around?" Aiden asked, his dark green eyes scanning the edges of the clearing. "I don't see anything that looks dangerous."

"Looks can be deceiving," Theon muttered. "There could be a whole paparazzi waiting for us."

"Great," Ivan snapped sarcastically, hopping on one leg to lean on a tree trunk. "I always wanted to get killed by rabid paparazzi!"

"Oh, you're in no pain _at all_," Aiden said with a smirk.

"Shut up," his twin grumbled back.

Theon's mind raced as fast as he could run. There was no way they would all make it across the clearing – Ivan's ankle was testimony to that. There were probably an entire pack of _giganosaurus_ circling the opening, waiting for their delicious prey to crash out of the forest into their trap. The dinosaurs were a lot smarter than a lot of people in the 21st century gave them credit for. In fact, just about all the dinosaurs bar some herbivores and the _carnotaurus _– a carnivorous dino that liked to bull-charge its prey – were as smart as the _velociraptors_ from _Jurassic Park._

"A diversion," he blurted. "I'll run out and distract them. You guys run to the anomaly – the little detection device thingy said it wasn't much farther ahead."

"That's if our demigodish bad luck wasn't making it point in the opposite direction," Aiden mumbled under his breath. He added, "And there's no way we're letting you take on a pack of _giganosaurus_ by yourself. No way."

"Why not?" Theon protested. "I could easily out-run them, and then double back –"

"No offense, but you have a terrible sense of direction," Ivan interrupted. "And if you out-run them, they just start tracking us again."

"What are you going to do?" Theon asked, motioning to the elder twin's ankle. "You can't run on that."

Ivan snorted and rolled his ankle experimentally. "I've had worse than this. If it comes to it, I'll just –"

It was at that moment that a _gigantosaurus_ head crashed through the trees, its jaws open for food. Ivan and Theon dodged the jaws, but they snapped down on something else instead. Aiden rolled away, his arm already bleeding. The _gigantosaurus_ looked young, thank the gods, so the wound wasn't too so, the blood from Aiden's arm would attract predators from miles away.

"My wand!" Aiden held up the severed stick.

They didn't have time to think about that. Ivan shoved Theon in the direction of the anomaly, ignoring his arm. "Go! We'll catch up. If anything happens we'll shadow travel."

Ivan and Aiden ducked into the clearing and shouted, "Hey! Come here, you sticking rotten good-for-nothing absolute pieces of horror on this Earth! You should all be hog-tied with neon pink and thrown down Tartarus and burned forever for the amount of trouble –"

The pack charged at once, and the twins disappeared into the woods. Theon darted in the direction of the anomaly, he heart pounding. Those utter _idiots!_ They were going to get themselves killed, and then Theon was going to have to talk to _Hades_, the god of the _dead_ and explain how his sons were killed. Not to mention Nico . . . oh gods, _Nico._ Theon was almost tempted to turn around and yank the twins back through the anomaly, _G-Rexes_ following or not.

Nico would probably do much worse to him if Theon didn't bring the twins back safely.

Theon crashed through more trees and branches, ignoring the stinging pain from his paper-cut like wounds. He never thought paper cuts hurt that much, but after he had about a thousand of them all over his arms and face, he decided to amend that. They hurt like _hades._ He was sure that all of the scars on his arms were never going to face, the way he was going. It didn't help their favorite past time was reopening. If the gods asked Theon for something after he got back, he was going to ask for paper-cuts to be gone forever.

He suddenly saw the edge of the tree-line, and after that was miles upon miles of rolling hills and desert. That wasn't the thing his eyes fixed on, though. It was the glittering glass-like portal that told him a doorway to another time had opened. He burst recklessly out of the by now much-hated forest, running at the portal. It pulsed it and out heavily, as if it was breathing. The pulses became slower and bigger, and Theon knew it was closing.

He put of a burst of speed, and –

He tripped. His knee smashed into the ground full force before he could brace his forearms against the fall. An explosion of pain erupted in the ligaments around his knee cap, but he forced himself to keep going. There was no way he was going to miss this opportunity to leave the Cretaceous Period. He didn't know where, or what time it would sent him to, but he didn't care. He half-ran, half-limped as fast as could up the hill. Life was literally an uphill battle, it seemed.

The anomaly gave one large pulse, as if it was its last breath, and Theon dove through.

That had been his dream. It was also a memory. He had ended up in London, 1938, just the right time to run into Annabeth, Percy and company on the train to Hogwarts. Theon didn't know what god liked him, but he hoped they continued to grant him little miracles like that. It had been such a relief to run into some old friends after loosing Ivan and Aiden in the Cretaceous. He had promised Nico . . . even though there wasn't much he could do, he had still promised Nico _and_ Hades that he would keep the twins safe.

He wasn't doing a great job so far.

The problems they had been fixing seemed small at first. The random dinosaur in the modern age, or a tourist who wanted to see the Pyramids getting up close and personal the with the Pharaoh – who was living and breath. Theon had a feeling that guy was still in mental therapy over that one. He probably be muttering about Hotep-Ra and a bunch of other mumbo-jumbo for a while.

It had only taken a few days to notice a pattern. The disturbances seemed . . . purposeful. It was as if someone was methodically going from era to era and messing things up. Things had started to change in the furture. Big things. When they had returned to their own year, they found that several things were missing . . . several rather important things.

Like the fact Ivan and Aiden were never born.

* * *

><p>Annabeth sighed as she listened to Theon chat nonstop. It was a wonder they didn't have every monster in the city on them with how loud he was being. He was practically bouncing a foot in the air with every step, hoping ahead of her, spinning around, motioning to different buildings and pointing out landmarks. The kid was wired with so much energy, she was tempted to ask him where he found the espresso beans.<p>

She wanted some, too.

". . . and then I caught the vine – I was so lucky! I could _died_!" Theon said with a grin. "It was so fun! We were swinging from vine to vine like Tarzan. Only Ivan kept almost falling off because the height was killing him."

"Sounds dangerous," Annabeth said dryly.

"Yeah," Theon admitted. "And we almost died. But it seemed like a good idea at the time! I mean, how many people can say that they jumped from tree to tree in the Jurassic Period? Oh! Or got chased by an angry . . ."

And so on.

Annabeth wondered if Theon, Ivan and Aiden's time in the Precambrian era had completely fried their brains. She decided she didn't want to know. If they were certifiably insane, that was fine with her, as long as they didn't bug her too much. However, Theon seemed overly fond of telling stories about his 'adventures' so she figured them leaving her alone was a nigh impossible hope. She would just have to endure.

She inspected the city with sad gray eyes. The tall buildings were covered in a layer of crusting sand that was nearly an inch deep, and most of the windows were cracked or smashed. A few of the apartment buildings had bars over the windows, which were hanging by bent and twisted metal. Whatever had attacked the city, the people had been completely unprepared for.

Annabeth hadn't even realized Theon had stopped moving and talking until she ran into him. He shot her an annoyed look, and raised a finger to his lips. He pointed in front of him, before darting to side to hide behind a flipped over car. Annabeth followed, training her eyes toward whatever Theon had pointed at. She couldn't see anything out of the ordinary, though.

Two people flashed into view. One was a woman with dark hair pulled back into a bun, wearing a business suit that didn't seem to fit in the surrounding at all. There was a large white bag that hung at her side, a single thick strap going over one shoulder, adorned with an insigna that Annabeth couldn't make out from where she was hiding. The woman carried herself with a commanding presence, her clear British accent reaching to Annabeth's and Theon hiding place easily. She glared daggers at her companion, barking orders rudely.

Her companion was military. There wasn't much else unique about him. He wore desert camo, which blended in with the ruined city quite well, and had a rather large machine gun strapped on his chest. His fingers were pressed to an ear piece, his features in a frown as he listened to something the woman said. Or perhaps it was something someone said over the ear piece.

"Who are those people?" Annabeth whispered. She didn't really think Theon knew, but there was no harm in asking.

"People that we try to steer clear of," Theon muttered back. "And I mean avoid like the Black plague. They're not people to get caught up with."

"But who are they?" Annabeth asked again.

"Some kind of agency that watching the anomalies," Theon replied. "There's more than one of them out there, and other are nicer, but she's bad news."

"Who is she?" Annabeth asked.

"Christine Willison," Theon said. "She's cruel, ambitious, and smart to boot. She's from the modern age. She works with some kind of science organization to use the anomalies as an energy source. Or at least, that's what they say."

"What?" Annabeth was having a hard time understanding anything. "Science organization?"

"Yeah, I don't really know much about it." Theon admitted. "Katelle might know more. She's had more than one run-in with scientists. Let's just say, there's some mortals out there that know _way_ more than they should be able to."

"Are you saying that there are mortals . . . who know about the gods?" Annabeth asked.

Theon snorted. "Several. They've got whole agencies devoted to tracking demigods. A lot of the half-bloods who disappear aren't just eaten by monsters. The monsters are just a good cover-story."

"That could be disastrous," Annabeth said.

"No kidding," Theon grumbled under his breath. "They're some of the people we're up against. They're part of the reason the world looks like this. That, and some guy called Draven Thorne."

"You're just now saying this?" Annabeth hissed.

Theon held up his hands in surrender. "Hey! I had a few dreams last night that cleared up several things. But that Thorne guy – he's following some other master. I have no idea who the bloke is, but he can't be nice."

Annabeth peered back over the car. Willison and the military guy had moved along. Theon suddenly let out a sharp intake of breath. "Willison . . . she's probably got one of those anomaly making things. This could be our ticket outta here."

"That easy?" Annabeth asked doubtfully.

"Nah," Theon said with crooked grin. "We'll probably break a few bones and scare the bejeebes out of Shrimpy, but we'll be out of this place."

"But we have no way of informing the others," Annabeth reminded him.

"We can use a Iris message!" Theon suggested.

"In the desert?" Annabeth raised an eyebrow.

"We just need some water." Theon continued.

"In the desert." Annabeth said again.

"We're in a city, not a desert!" He rolled his eyes. "If I can find some mist or something . . ."

"In a ruined city. In the desert," Annabeth said, yet again.

"Ugh, fine!" Theon snapped. "It was a bad plan. I'll just go over there and knock Mr T upside the head and take Free Willy's device so we can make an anomaly and _leave_ this place."

Annabeth ignored the interesting names given to the two travelers. She had learned to after going on so many quests with Percy. "It's a sound plan. We can meet up with Katelle, Percy and Tom at the designated building and be off."

"Yup." Theon agreed. "Katelle'll probably throw a world-class fit in her head about her plan being rendered useless. She'll go off a kill a few innocent furry things and then feel better, though."

Annabeth wasn't sure whether to laugh with Theon, or feel worried for the innocent furry things. "Okay, so how about we –"

"I got Mr T, you take the killer whale," Theon darted out into open toward the two mortals.

"Theon – wait!" Annabeth scrambled around the car, but by the time she reached the two mortals, Theon had knocked out the military man, and Willison. "I see you handled it nicely."

"Just a walk in the park," Theon replied with a grin. He held up a small, clear device. "Here's our golden ticket. Kids, we're goin' to Willy Wonka's." He aimed a glare at the woman. "Just we're leaving Willy behind and taking all the chocolate."

"You're a little messed up in the head," Annabeth informed him.

"I reject your reality and substitute it with my own," Theon quipped.

"Whatever you say," Annabeth shook her head. "Let's go to the rendezvous point."

"Wait a sec . . ." Theon knelt down and grabbed Willison's bag. "I bet there will be something of interest in here."

Annabeth reached for the bag as Theon pulled out a bar chocolate. His eyes lit up. "Sugar!"

"Don't even think about it," she snatched the chocolate from his hand and dumped it back in the bag. "You don't need sugar."

Theon sighed. "You're so cruel. Don't worry, chocolate, I will save you from her evil clutches!"

She shook her head - he wondered why she wouldn't let him have sugar - and resumed their brisk walk, only going in the direction of the building they were all supposed to meet in. She hoped Percy didn't blow something up while she wasn't there with him. Or accidentally knock Tom of a building. Or tick off one of the last remaining gods and get blown to smithereens. Or . . . she could go on all day.

She noticed Theon fingering the necklace again. "You worried about Ivan and Aiden?"

"Huh? Nah, they'll be fine." Theon looked like he was trying to convince himself. "I mean, they're both good at magic, and Aiden caught on to fighting really quickly. Ivan's smart, so he'll keep Aiden from doing anything _too_ stupid . . . I hope."

"Oh."

"Did you know that about . . . uh, five thousand years ago they proposed a cap on kids in families? No more than one kid per family. Ivan and Aiden, who were clearly twins, nearly got arrested." Theon frowned. "We had to make a quick exit from that time. They were out for the twin's heads. Luckily the law only lasted about fifty years. They abolished it after the human population started to decrease."

And that was kind of odd things that Theon randomly spouted out for the entire trip. Apparently the Mayans had tried to use Theon in one of their rituals. It was supposed to be a huge honor, blessed of the gods and so on. What Theon didn't know, was they their 'rituals' involved a dull obsidian knife and his heart on a golden altar.

"I tried to lodge a complaint," Theon said, "because that kind of hospitality wasn't the best. No one seemed to care about the law suit, though."

Annabeth shook her head with a smile.

* * *

><p>"Please! No more!"<p>

"Ne begging, wimp."

"I beg of you! I can't take it anymore!"

"Oh, we're almost there!"

"I'm _dying!_"

"Suck it up!"

"My legs are going to fall off, Percy."

Percy paused, looking down at the dark haired boy. He grinned. "We're only two stories away from the top, Tom."

"You know," Tom panted, "you being . . . the son . . . of Poseidon makes you sea food. I might . . . just add you onto my hit-list."

Percy probably should have been worried. Any normal person would have been. "Whatever. We're almost there."

"You said that ten stories ago!" Ton whined. Yes, _whined._ The Dark Lord Supreme whined.

"Actually, I think it was six, but that's besides the point." Percy paused, waiting for Tom to catch up. "I think you going to attract every monster in existence with all the noise you're making."

"You're one to talk," Tom mumbled.

Percy shook his head. He had quickly found out that magical prodigy did not mean physically fit. Tom had been panting after the second stories. He started groaning after the fifth story, and then five more stories later, and he was complaining non-stop. Even though Tom didn't have much experience with exercise, Percy really didn't think climbing twenty story building was that strenuous. Tom begged the differ. All the time. Constantly. Without end.

Seriously, that kid never ran out of complains. He dad _had_ to be whatever god was the god of complaining.

Percy tried to wipe the smirk off his face as Tom finally caught up with him, but failed miserably. He got a deadly glare as a reward for his efforts, but it was totally worth it. When they got back to camp Half-Blood, Tommy boy was going on an exercise program. Well, that was if he went to Camp Half-Blood. Even so, Percy was going to teach him a thing or two about swordplay. He at least needed to know how to defend himself.

Tom collapsed, leaning against the wall and aiming another baleful glare at Percy. "Slave driver."

"Shrimp."

"Kelp brain."

"Air head."

" . . . That was lame." Tom said with a laugh.

"As soon as we find out who your dad is, I'll have better insults," Percy promised.

"Whatever, _seaweed brain,_" Tom sneered.

Percy bristled, and fought the urge to stuff the kid in a bag and toss him over the railing. He struggled with the urge to continue arguing, since he knew it would get them no where fast. It probably hadn't been the best idea to make Percy and Tom go anywhere together without Annabeth to keep them on track.

"Come on, we're really almost there." Percy encouraged.

Tom picked himself up, scowling. "Fine."

They reached the top of building in a short amount of time. Tom looked a little queasy after looking over the side of the building. The drop was startling to say the least. It was probably good that Thalia wasn't there. She would have been paralyzed. A gust of wind picked up, tossing a few debris across the cement ground. The debris made ominous scraping sounds that set the boys' nerves on edge.

Percy set the Mp3 player up, facing the city. "You better work," he told the device. "I climbed all the way here."

Then the scrapping continued, even after the wind had stopped.

Tom frowned, glaring at Percy. "Are you messing with me?"

"No, why would I do that?" Percy asked.

Tom blinked a few seconds, and then rolled his eyes. "Never mind. It must be noth –"

A loud _bang!_ echoed from under them, effectively silencing Tom. A split-second later, several of the huge mosquito hawk monsters burst through the door to the stairs, their translucent wings thrumming in the air. Long, spindly legs tapped the ground as they moved in closer. Percy could see the long needle-like tongue coming from their mouths, probably used to . . . eat their prey.

Tom had gone ashen. He stood, frozen and transfixed by the monster as they crept closer and closer. Percy slipped Riptide from his pocket, uncapping the pen so it elongated into a Celestial bronze sword. Briefly, the monsters seemed to pause when they saw the bronze. Maybe the glow awakened a long-buried memory of other demigods killing them with similar weapons. The memories didn't seem to bother them, if that was the case.

They sprang, and Percy jumped back, slicing Riptide up so it passed through the monster's abdomen cleanly. It dissolved into sand, scattering on the ground. Two other monster attacked at the same time, while another skirted around behind Percy. Theon had said they were unusually intelligent. He muttered a curse in ancient Greek as he stabbed one mosquito hawk and dodged another.

He vaulted over the monster and slammed the pommel of his sword onto its head, stunning it. He landed in a roll, and soon as he was upright he finished it off. Then twelve more of them flooded onto the building roof through the door, their wings buzzing as some took the air and others stayed on the ground. He paused, wondering how in the world he was going to fight them off, while defending Tom and not get killed all at the same time.

Then he nearly slapped himself. Duh. The Mp3 player.

He ran over the pilon where he had rested the tiny device on and winced, trying to remember Katelle's instructions. Was it the blue button or the red button? Red pill or the blue pill? Argh! He could never remember which was which! If only he had Annabeth's memory. Although, if he had Annabeth's memory should wouldn't have forgotten to turn the thing on in the first place.

Red button.

He looked over at the monster, which dropped to the ground writhing and making strange gurgling sounds. They suddenly took off into the air, thrashing as they flew as far away from the city as their wings could carry them. He let out a sigh of relief as the last monster vacated the roof, leaving nothing but golden sand from the few Percy killed.

Then he looked over the edge of the roof and saw a truly frightening sight. There were hundreds of monsters, bursting out of windows, doors, walls and running down the streets wildly. They all galloped out of the city, screeching in pain and shaking their head as they tried to rid themselves of the sound that Percy and Tom couldn't hear.

Fairly soon, their part of the neighborhood was clear. What a relief.

Percy swiped the cap of Riptide up and touched it to the tip of the blade. It shrank back down into a pen, which he pocketed. Then he turned to Tom, who was still trembling in fear. Percy had never heard of a phobia of mosquito hawks before, but Tom clearly had one. If Percy didn't snap him out of it, he would probably stay catatonic for several minutes.

"Hey!" Percy clicked his fingers in front of Tom's eyes. "They're all gone!"

"Huh?" Tom blinked a few times, and then shook his head. "S-sorry. They were so – so _big._"

Percy felt a twinge of sympathy. Tom was only eleven, after all – a whole year younger than Percy had been when he discovered he was Half-blood. The only thing was, Percy had had environment to toughen him up, and while living in an orphanage in the 1930's wasn't easy, Tom had a pretty sheltered life.

Besides, Percy knew how scary was to go on the first quest. He would never admit it, but he had been terrified for a while before he left. It wasn't so bad once Annabeth and Grover volunteered to come along. And Tom's adventure was a little different than Percy's. At least Percy had gotten to stay in the same time period, in his home country. It was a bit of a "culture" shock.

"What do you say we go been up with Katelle?" Percy suggested. "We're done here."

"Yeah." Tom nodded.

Percy neared the door, looking down the long flights of stairs dubiously. "Don't worry, I'll go first. Shut the door behind you, and that should stop any monsters from getting in."

Tom nodded and shut the door behind him – which creaked a loud, painful screeching noise that grilled Percy's nerves even more than the debris in the wind. The rest of the way down wasn't so bad. No monsters attacked, no loud noises made Percy flinch and Tom stick to the ceiling. Well, once Tom got over his fear from before he started complaining loudly again, but besides for that it was relatively peaceful.

Outside the building, the wind had picked up. "Uh oh," Percy muttered. "Another wind storm?"

"I hope not," Tom replied. "We're no where near the bunker, and I don't know where another one is."

"Let's hope we can get to the rendezvous before the storm picks up too badly," Percy muttered.

Percy broke into a light job, and Tom let out a moan of protest before running to catch up. The building they were all supposed to meet up in was near the center of the city, but that didn't seem too far. Most of the city was out skirting neighborhoods. The central city seemed to be what was once a tourist attraction, with small shops and hotels.

"Hey!"

Percy turned around, to see Annabeth and Theon running after them. A lopsided grin covered his face. "Annabeth!"

They stopped in front of them, and Theon held up a shiny, clear . . . thing. "Our ticket home!"

"Oh, cool!" Percy frowned. "What is it?"

"I dunno what they're called," Theon shrugged. "But they open up anomalies to certain times. This beauty will take us back to 1938, where the other are."

"Great!" Tom exclaimed. "How does it work?"

Theon opened and closed his mouth several times. "Um – well – I used it before . . .Shouldn't be too hard."

Annabeth frowned. "I thought you knew how to use it!"

"I do!" Theon shot back. Then he added, "sorta."

Tom scowled. "What do you mean "sorta"? Do you, or do you not, know how to use the bloody thing?"

"I know how to use it," Theon snapped, "I just don't know how to narrow it down to the time we want to show up in."

"Well that's just brilliant," Tom spat.

"What got him?" Annabeth muttered to Percy.

"Twenty flights of stairs, mosquito hawks and a mile run," Percy answered out of the corner of his mouth.

She snorted and rolled her eyes. "Now you know how the nymphs felt when you first started training at camp."

"I wasn't that bad!" Percy protested, giving her his infamous baby seal eyes.

She was immune. "Yes, you were, seaweed brain."

They turned their attention back to Tom and Theon, who were bickering back and forth. "Honestly," all four of them jumped and spun around. Katelle rolled her eyes, her pack held in one hand, and her silver knife in the other. She sighed and shook her head. "What would you guys do without me?"

"Gee, humility, much?" Theon muttered.

"Not my strong suit," Katelle replied. "Where did you guys get the anomaly device?"

"I nicked it off some military guy." Theon answered. He held up a white bag. "Took this from Willison."

Katelle tensed. "_Willison?_ What is _she_ doing here?"

"Don't ask me," Theon said. He tossed her the back and the device. "I can't make heads or tails of that device. I know how to do the anomaly thing, just not the time."

She nodded, catching the bag and slinging it over her shoulder with her pack. "They can take some getting used to, but it's fairly simple."

She held up the device and pressed the screen. A bright white light shot out of the end of the device, which morphed into a thousand crystalline shards. They circled around, turning into an anomaly that would, hopefully, take them to 1938. The light filled up the street they were on, probably shining like a beacon to any monsters that were in the area.

Percy didn't know if the Mp3 player's sound range covered them, but he didn't want to risk it. He grinned. "Well, what are we waiting for?"

Katelle wasn't smiling. She tossed the device back to Theon and shouldered her pack again. "You guys go ahead. I'll find my way back."

"Are you insane?" Tom asked, beating Percy to the punch.

She glowered. "I have something I need to check out. Willison shouldn't be here, I want to know what she's up to. I'll catch up."

"Are you sure?" Theon asked doubtfully. "This place isn't exactly the epitome of hospitable."

For a second, doubt flashed over her features. Then her emotionless mask slid back into place and she nodded. "I'll be fine. I've survived here before, I can do it again. You guys go, before the anomaly closes."

Percy didn't like it, but they didn't have much of a choice. He really didn't want to stay in this era, and even if he did, Annabeth would stay with him. That would put her in danger, and push Theon towards wanting to stay as well. Then Tom, if he didn't also tag along, would have to go back by himself.

He sighed in defeat. "Alight. Let's go. Be careful, okay?"

She snorted. "I'm always careful."

Theon rose his eyebrows and said sarcastically, "Right. Whatever. Because clearly jumping off buildings _without_ a parachute counts as careful."

Katelle scowled. "I'm not dead yet. Now get!"

Theon shrugged. "Okay. I'm not spending anymore time here than necessary." He darted through the anomaly, Tom following close behind.

Percy looked at Annabeth, and she nodded. She offered Katelle a smile. "We'll see you later."

"Sure," Katelle sounded bored.

Percy and Annabeth walked through the anomaly, shuddering as the cold feeling of shards passed over them. The light faded, and they found themselves in a familiar clearing in a very familiar forest. Theon was dancing around, whooping happily, and Tom just looked happy to be alive. The anomaly jerked behind them, and then closed.

It was early morning, dim light just barely shining through the trees. Percy looked back, feeling a stab of guilt for leaving Katelle behind.

"Well, what do you say we get back to the castle and see what's up?" Theon asked, appearing in front of Percy.

"Okay, sure," Percy agreed.

"See ya!" Theon bolted off in a blur of sandy hair.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: I know! I took so long to update! I just had to take a break and let my creative reserves refill. Serious, I was so burnt out. It is _hard_ to write out 5000+ chapters! At least for me it is. But don't worry! I make it a personal commandment of mine to NEVER leave a story unfinished. Ever. There will never be those annoying stories that start out so good, and then just stop because the author didn't continue. ****Those are so annoying!**

**Even if the morrow is barren of promises, nothing shall forestall my return. **

**Ughh, I know my life is a new low if I'm quoting stuff like that above. Comment if you got the reference! There's got to be some gamers reading, ya?**

**I love reviews! So yeah. Review! And sorry again for the wait. (look on the bright side, this chapter was extra long!) **


End file.
